They told the story so far as they knew it to the Prince and showed him the money, 300 florins apiece, which they had already received from Slatius.  Maurice hesitated not an instant.  It was evident that a dark conspiracy was afoot.  He ordered the sailors to return to the Hague by another and circuitous road through Voorburg, while he lost not a moment himself in hurrying back as fast as his horses would carry him.  Summoning the president and several councillors of the chief tribunal, he took instant measures to take possession of the two taverns, and arrest all the strangers found in them.

Meantime van Dyk came into the house of the widow Barneveld and found Stoutenburg in the stable-yard.  He told him the plot was discovered, the chest of arms at the “Golden Helmet” found.  “Are there any private letters or papers in the bog?” asked Stoutenburg.  “None relating to the affair,” was the answer.

“Take yourself off as fast as possible,” said Stoutenburg.  Van Dyk needed no urging.  He escaped through the stables and across the fields in the direction of Leyden.  After skulking about for a week however and making very little progress, he was arrested at Hazerswoude, having broken through the ice while attempting to skate across the inundated and frozen pastures in that region.

Proclamations were at once made, denouncing the foul conspiracy in which the sons of the late Advocate Barneveld, the Remonstrant clergyman Slatius, and others, were the ringleaders, and offering 4000 florins each for their apprehension.  A public thanksgiving for the deliverance was made in all the churches on the 8th February.

On the 12th February the States-General sent letters to all their ambassadors and foreign agents, informing them of this execrable plot to overthrow the Commonwealth and take the life of the Stadholder, set on foot by certain Arminian preachers and others of that faction, and this too in winter, when the ice and snow made hostile invasion practicable, and when the enemy was encamped in so many places in the neighbourhood.  “The Arminians,” said the despatch, “are so filled with bitterness that they would rather the Republic should be lost than that their pretended grievances should go unredressed.”  Almost every pulpit shook with Contra-Remonstrant thunder against the whole society of Remonstrants, who were held up to the world as rebels and prince-murderers; the criminal conspiracy being charged upon them as a body.  Hardly a man of that persuasion dared venture into the streets and public places, for fear of being put to death by the rabble.  The Chevalier William of Nassau, natural son of the Stadholder, was very loud and violent in all the taverns and tap-rooms, drinking mighty draughts to the damnation of the Arminians.

Many of the timid in consequence shrank away from the society and joined the Contra-Remonstrant Church, while the more courageous members, together with the leaders of that now abhorred communion, published long and stirring appeals to the universal sense of justice, which was outraged by the spectacle of a whole sect being punished for a crime committed by a few individuals, who had once been unworthy members of it.