he had advice from good hands their prisoner was seeking to make his
escape: some persons were sent to Louvestein to examine into this
matter; but notwithstanding all the enquiry that could be made, they
found no reason to believe that Grotius had laid any plot to get out.

His wife however was wholly employed in contriving how to set him at
liberty. He had been permitted[110] to borrow books of his friends, and
when he had done with them, they were carried back in a chest with his
foul linen, which was sent to Gorcum, a town near Louvestein, to be
washed. The first year his guards were very exact in examining the chest
when it went from Louvestein; but being used to find in it only books
and linen, they grew tired of searching, and did not take the trouble to
open it. Grotius' wife observing their negligence, purposed to take
advantage of it. She represented to her husband that it was in his power
to get out of prison when he pleased, if he would put himself in the
chest that carried his books. However, not to endanger his health, she
caused holes to be bored opposite to the part where his face was to be,
to breathe at; and made him try if he could continue shut up in that
confined posture as long as it would require to go from Louvestein to
Gorcum. Finding it might be done, she resolved to seize the first
favourable opportunity.

It soon offered. The Commandant of Louvestein[111] going to Heusden to
raise recruits, Grotius' wife made a visit to his lady, and told her in
conversation, that she was desirous of sending away a chest full of
books, for her husband was so weak, it gave her great uneasiness to see
him study with such application. Having thus prepared the Commandant's
wife, she returned to her husband's apartment, and in concert with a
valet and a maid, who were in the secret, shut him up in the chest. At
the same time, that people might not be surprised at not seeing him, she