She began to carry it into execution by cultivating an intimacy with the wife of the commandant of Gorcum.  To her, she lamented Grotius’s immoderate application to study; she informed her that it had made him seriously ill; and that, in consequence of his illness, she had resolved to take all his books from him, and restore them to their owners.  She circulated every where the account of his illness, and finally declared that it had confined him to his bed.

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  VII. 1618—­1621.]

In the mean time, the chest was accommodated to her purpose; and particularly, some holes were bored in it, to let in air.  Her maid and the valet of Grotius were entrusted with the secret.  The chest was conveyed to Grotius’s apartment.  She then revealed her project to him, and, after much entreaty, prevailed on him to get into the chest, and leave her in the prison.

The books, which Grotius borrowed, were usually sent to Gorcum; and the chest, which contained them, passed in a boat, from the prison at Louvestein, to that town.

[Sidenote:  His Escape from Prison.]

Big with the fate of Grotius, the chest, as soon as he was enclosed in it, was moved into the boat.  One of the soldiers, observing that it was uncommonly heavy, insisted on its being opened, and its contents examined; but, by the address of the maid, his scruples were removed, and the chest was lodged in the boat.  The passage from Louvestein to Gorcum took a considerable time.  The length of the chest did not exceed three feet and a half.  At length, it reached Gorcum:  it was intended that it should be deposited at the house of David Bazelaer, an Arminian friend of Grotius, who resided at Gorcum.  But, when the boat reached the shore, a difficulty arose, how the chest was to be conveyed from the spot, upon which it was to be landed, to Bazelaer’s house.  This difficulty was removed by the maid’s presence of mind; she told the bystanders, that the chest contained glass, and that it must be moved with particular care.  Two chairmen were soon found, and they carefully moved it on a horse-chair to the appointed place.

Bazelaer sent away his servants on different errands, opened the chest, and received his friend with open arms.  Grotius declared, that while he was in the chest, he had felt much anxiety, but had suffered no other inconvenience.  Having dressed himself as a mason, with a rule and trowel, he went, through the back door of Bazelaer’s house, accompanied by his maid, along the market-place, to a boat engaged for the purpose.  It conveyed them to Vervie in Brabant:  there, he was safe.  His maid then left him, and, returning to his wife, communicated to her the agreeable information of the success of the enterprise.

[Sidenote:  Chap.  VII. 1618-1621.]