f employing
him in England, he tells him it was in vain to think of it in the
present circumstances.
Grotius seeing so much opposition, judged it most proper to seek his
fortune elsewhere; and left Holland.
FOOTNOTES:
[169] Ep. 297. p. 847.
[170] Ep. 301. p. 844.
[171] Ep. 304. p. 844.
[172] Ep. 305. p. 844.
[173] Ep. Vossii 38. p. 142.
[174] Ep. 289. p. 105.
[175] Praest. Vir. Epist. 507. p. 766.
[176] Praes. Vir. Ep. 508. p. 567.
XIII. It was on the seventeenth of March 1632 that he set out from
Amsterdam on his way to Hamburg; but did not take up his residence in
that City till the end of the year: the fine season[177] he passed at an
agreeable country-seat, called Okinhuse, near the Elbe, belonging to
William Morth, a Dutchman.
He had left many friends in France. William De Lusson, First President
of the Court of Moneys, was one who adhered to him most steadily: and
we find by Grotius' letter to him that he was very active to obtain the
payment of his pension though absent: In a letter whose date is
false[178], Grotius informs him[179], that while he lived he would never
forget the King's goodness and the gracious reception with which that
Prince honoured him: and promises to write to Boutillier, Superintendant
of the finances, as soon as an occasion offered. It is probable this
Minister had made him an offer of service; for in speaking of him
Grotius says, "It is very agreeable to me to be approved by a man who in
such a high station has not lost the taste for polite literature: I wish
him and his family uninterrupted prosperity, and the art of enjoying
it."
His wife, who had been in Zealand, came to join him, and the pleasure of
seeing her again was a consolation under all his troubles. He writes to
Vossius, August 17, 1632[180], "Oppressed by the violence of my enemies,
to which hand shall I turn me, and to whom shall I have recourse, but to
her who has been the faithful companion of my good and bad fortune; and
to you who have given me public marks of your attachment in my greatest
calamities? I have not yet (he adds) come to a resolution in my own
affair; but as far as I can see I shall have it in my power to chuse. It
ought not to appear hard to me to live under a Master, when I see that
after so many efforts for preserving your liberty you have little more
than the name of it. I am resolved to expose myself to every thing
rather than stoop to those who have treated me so unwo
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