He was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, Jan Franken by name, and a sentinel stood constantly before his door.  His papers had been taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials.

He had small connection with the outward world.  The news of the municipal revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had not penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him fruit from their garden.  One day a basket of fine saffron pears was brought to him.  On slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill inside it.  Within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest handwriting in Latin.  It was to this effect.

“Don’t rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has changed the magistracies in many cities.  Dudley Carleton is not your friend.”

A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had put a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife.  The letter, copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them, was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for the future.

Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early days of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to examination.  He was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said to have exclaimed with many sighs, “Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what have you brought us to!”

He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to prevent internal tumults.  He said that the Advocate had advised in the previous month of March a request to the Prince not to come to Utrecht; that the communication of the message, in regard to disbanding the Waartgelders, to his Excellency had been postponed after the deputies of the States of Holland had proposed a delay in that disbandment; that those deputies had come to Utrecht of their own accord; . . . . that they had judged it possible to keep everything in proper order in Utrecht if the garrison in the city paid by Holland were kept quiet, and if the States of Utrecht gave similar orders to the Waartgelders; for they did not believe that his Excellency would bring in troops from the outside.  He said that he knew nothing of a new oath to be demanded of the garrison.  He stated that the Advocate, when at Utrecht, had exhorted the States, according to his wont, to maintain their liberties and privileges, representing to them that the right to decide on the Synod and the Waartgelders belonged to them.  Lastly, he denied knowing who was the author of The Balance, except by common report.