Provinces. He alighted at Antwerp at the house of Nicholas Grevincovius,
who had been formerly a Minister at Amsterdam; and made himself known to
no body but him. It was on the 22d of March, 1621, that Grotius thus
recovered his liberty.

In the mean time it was believed at Louvestein that he was ill; and to
give him time to get off, his wife gave out that his illness was
dangerous; but as soon as she learnt by the maid's return that he was in
Brabant, and consequently in safety, she told the guards, the bird was
flown. They informed the Commandant, by this time returned from Heusden,
who hastened to Grotius's wife, and asked her where she had hid her
husband? She answered he might search for him: but being much pressed
and even threatened, she confessed that she had caused him to be carried
to Gorcum in the book chest: and that she had done no more than kept her
word to him, to take the first opportunity of setting her husband at
liberty. The Commandant in a rage went immediately to Gorcum, and
acquainting the Magistrate with his prisoner's escape, both came to
Dazelaer's, where they found the empty chest. On his return to
Louvestein the Commandant confined Grotius's wife more closely: but
presenting a petition to the States-General, April 5, 1621, praying that
she might be discharged, and Prince Maurice, to whom it was
communicated, making no opposition, the majority were for setting her at
liberty. Some indeed voted for detaining her a prisoner; but they were
looked on as very barbarous, to want to punish a woman for an heroic
action. Two days after presenting the petition, she was discharged, and
suffered to carry away every thing that belonged to her in Louvestein.
Grotius continued some time at Antwerp. March 30, he wrote to the
States-General that in procuring his liberty he had employed neither
violence nor corruption with his keepers; that he had nothing to
reproach himself with in what he had done; that he gave those counsels