Soon afterwards, Grotius on his way to the States-General was invited in precisely the same manner to go to the Prince, with whom, as he was informed, the Advocate was at that moment conferring.  As soon as he had ascended the stairs however, he was arrested by Captain van der Meulen in the name of the States-General, and taken to a chamber in the same apartments, where he was guarded by two halberdmen.  In the evening he was removed to another chamber where the window shutters were barred, and where he remained three days and nights.  He was much cast down and silent.  Pensionary Hoogerbeets was made prisoner in precisely the same manner.  Thus the three statesmen—­culprits as they were considered by their enemies—­were secured without noise or disturbance, each without knowing the fate that had befallen the other.  Nothing could have been more neatly done.  In the same quiet way orders were sent to secure Secretary Ledenberg, who had returned to Utrecht, and who now after a short confinement in that city was brought to the Hague and imprisoned in the Hof.

At the very moment of the Advocate’s arrest his son-in-law van der Myle happened to be paying a visit to Sir Dudley Carleton, who had arrived very late the night before from England.  It was some hours before he or any other member of the family learned what had befallen.

The Ambassador reported to his sovereign that the deed was highly applauded by the well disposed as the only means left for the security of the state.  “The Arminians,” he said, “condemn it as violent and insufferable in a free republic.”

Impartial persons, he thought, considered it a superfluous proceeding now that the Synod had been voted and the Waartgelders disbanded.

While he was writing his despatch, the Stadholder came to call upon him, attended by his cousin Count Lewis William.  The crowd of citizens following at a little distance, excited by the news with which the city was now ringing, mingled with Maurice’s gentlemen and bodyguards and surged up almost into the Ambassador’s doors.

Carleton informed his guests, in the course of conversation, as to the general opinion of indifferent judges of these events.  Maurice replied that he had disbanded the Waartgelders, but it had now become necessary to deal with their colonel and the chief captains, meaning thereby Barneveld and the two other prisoners.

The news of this arrest was soon carried to the house of Barneveld, and filled his aged wife, his son, and sons-in-law with grief and indignation.  His eldest son William, commonly called the Seignior van Groeneveld, accompanied by his two brothers-in-law, Veenhuyzen, President of the Upper Council, and van der Myle, obtained an interview with the Stadholder that same afternoon.

They earnestly requested that the Advocate, in consideration of his advanced age, might on giving proper bail be kept prisoner in his own house.