Excellency that it was a breach of privilege, by
which no Deputy could be arrested during the sitting of the States; and
as they stood in need of Grotius's assistance and counsels, praying that
he, as Governor of Holland and West-Friesland, would prevail with the
States General to set him at liberty, and put him in the same situation
he was in before his imprisonment, promising to guard him at Rotterdam
or elsewhere, that he might be forthcoming to answer any charge brought
against him by the States General. The Prince gave only for answer, that
the affair concerned the States General. Their petition having had no
effect, on the 10th of September, 1618, the city of Rotterdam sent a
deputation to the States of Holland, praying that Grotius and the other
persons accused might be tried according to the custom of the country.
But the States themselves were under oppression.

Grotius's wife petitioned[92] for leave to continue with her husband
whilst his cause was depending; but this favour was denied her. On his
falling ill, she again pressed to be allowed to visit him, they had the
cruelty to hinder her: she offered not to speak to him but in presence
of his guards; this was also refused. Thus all the time of his
confinement at the Hague, no one was permitted to see him, even when he
lay dangerously ill.

We may judge to what length his enemies carried their blindness and
fury, by the following passage related by Selden[93]. When Grotius was
arrested, some who bore him ill-will, prevailed with Carleton,
Ambassador from Great Britain at the Hague, to make a complaint against
his book _Of the Freedom of the Ocean_: the Ambassador was not ashamed
to maintain that the States ought to make an example of him, to prevent
others from defending an opinion that might occasion a misunderstanding
between the two nations. Carleton and his advisers were the dupes of
this contemptible step: the States General paid no regard to his
complaint. The proposal was shameful in itself. Could they think that it
would be made a crime in Grotius to have written a book, dictated by his
love to his country, and deserving a recompence from the States to whom
it had been of great use in the dispute with England concerning the
right of navigation?

At the first examination which Grotius underwent, he answered[94] that
he was of the Province of Holland, Minister of a city of Holland; that
he had been arrested on the territories of Holland; that he ack