granted. He says neither favour nor solicitations had any influence in
his gaining this suit; and that he owed it to the incontestable right of
which the town of Delft was long in possession.

Though the information received from his brother of the inefficacy of
his friends solicitations might have made him forget his country[168],
he resolved to regulate his conduct by his wife's advice, who had been
on the spot. On her return from Holland she told him it was necessary he
should go thither. He immediately wrote to his brother that on his
wife's information he resolved to go to see him and his father and
mother; and that they would consult together what was best to be done
for his advantage. He adds, that if after so long patience he still
found his Country ungrateful, he had received advantageous proposals
from more than one quarter, where he might live with ease and honour. He
set out for Holland in the month of October, 1631.

FOOTNOTES:

[162] Ep. 199. p. 71.

[163] Ep. 200. p. 71.

[164] Ep. 98. p. 783. 99. p. 783. and 100. p. 784.

[165] Ep. 148. p. 797.

[166] Ep. 223. p. 77.

[167] Ep. 261. p. 89.

[168] Ep. 278. p. 838.

XII. The sentence passed against him was still in force. His friends,
afraid of his being arrested, as he had no safe-conduct, advised his
concealing himself: this step appeared to him shameful and timid. He
wrote to his brother on the nineteenth of November, 1631, that he would
rather retire than conceal himself; and that by not appearing in public
he had lessened the opinion of his innocence, and at the same time the
courage of his friends.

He came to Rotterdam[169], where he imagined he would be safest,
because, having filled the post of Pensionary with much honour, he was
greatly beloved in the town. He took it ill that the Magistrates did not
make him the first visit after the signal services he had done the city;
and hesitated whether he should go to see them: one of them sent his son
to acquaint him that it was not perhaps prudent, after the sentence of
condemnation passed upon him, to appear in public. Grotius made answer,
that he had such a good opinion of the gratitude of the Burghers of
Rotterdam, he was persuaded he had nothing to fear among them. The young
gentleman replied, that in a populous town there might possibly be some
one who would do him an ill turn to gain the reward. Grotius imagined
this advice proceeded from the Magistrates jealousy, who were afraid