have great authority.  Hence it is uncertain how this affair will end:  he has the flower of Holland for him; but it often happens with us that the Zealots, like the rigid Puritans, by their menaces and clamour bear down the honest party, who are more modest.  If it should so happen I fear much that this great man, fatigued with these squabbles, will of himself quit his ungrateful Country:  I am the more apprehensive of this as I know for certain that some Kings and several Princes are endeavouring to draw him to their courts by offers of great honours and a considerable salary.  If he is destined to live out of his Country, I shall be jealous of any place he settles in if it be not Great-Britain, where, I foresee, he would be of much service to the king and kingdom.”  Laud, in his answer to this letter, owns[176] that he always looked on Grotius’s recall as a thing not to be expected:  as to the proposal of 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.”