CAMEO IX. Trial of Barneveldt. 1619. state that had been in course of formation all the time, and was as yet scarcely defined. One absurd part of the charge was that he had written disrespectfully to James I., while there were monstrous questions asked him about Spanish money, truculent intentions as to punishments for seizing the Cloister Church, strange treasons attributed to the levy of the Waartgelders. Altogether, the principle of the interrogation of Barneveldt, Grotius, and Hoogenboets seems to have been, "Throw dirt enough, and some will be sure to stick." Still, no great alarm was felt till a solemn fast day was announced for the 17th of April, because Church and State had been nearly destroyed by the machinations of certain wicked persons. The three prisoners fasted and prayed in their separate chambers, and each, unknown to the other, sang the seventh Psalm, "Preserve me, O Lord, for in Thee have I put my trust." Some of the ministers would not attend to the proclamation, but many called on their congregations to give thanks for their deliverance from the blood bath that the traitors were said to be preparing for them. The families of the sufferers were, however, so confident in their innocence, that it was like a thunder-clap when Maurice's cousin, Count William Louis of Nassau, sent for one of his old friends, the Fiscal Duyck, to consult with him whether there were any means of saving Barneveldt's life. Count William believed that submission and an acknowledgment of guilt was all that was required, and that if the family would sue for pardon for the Advocate as a criminal, it would be granted, but this acknowledgment was just what the high-spirited old man, who had ever acted from a strong sense of duty, was never likely to make. After three hours' consultation, Count William decided on going to Louise de Coligny, the widow of William the Silent, whom her stepson, Maurice, held in much esteem, and who greatly respected Barneveldt. He would induce her to send for the wife of the prisoner's eldest son, Madame van Groeneveld, and explain to her the full danger of the case, that she might then move the whole family to petition for the life of the Advocate. The Princess of Orange gladly did her part, and Madame van Groeneveld more unwillingly undertook the mission, but after a time she came back to the Princess, and told her that the wife and son were determined not to move in the matter-no, not if it should cost the head of their father. For well they knew that he would far rather die than admit that his life had been otherwise than true and loyal, or accept a pardon when he was an innocent man. They had indeed presented appeals against the flagrant injustice of the so-called trial, but no notice was taken of these, and they could do no more without diminution of his honour. The Princess Dowager and Count William were so much distressed at finding all their efforts vain, that they quitted the Hague. Maurice himself was grieved, for it was submission that he wanted, not life, and he must have known how posterity would look on his judicial murder; but the iron Dutch will would not yield on either side, and the prosecution once set on foot must needs work on to the bitter end. Accordingly, all manner of petty infractions of the undefined constitution were rehearsed in the preamble of the sentence, and in consequence of them, the commissioners, in the name of the States-General, sentenced John of Old Barneveldt to be executed with the sword; and confiscated his property. At half-past five in the afternoon of the 12th of May, the tidings were brought to him by two government officers and the Provost Marshal, that he must appear before the judges the next morning to receive the sentence of death, which would be at once carried out. "The sentence of death! The sentence of death!" repeated the old statesman, in amazement. "I never expected that! I thought they were going to hear my defence again." And he spoke of his services. The Provost Marshal said he was sorry his lordship took it ill of him. "I do not take it ill of you," said Barneveldt, "but I know not how they (the judges) will answer it before God;" and turning to one of the other gentlemen, the son of an old friend, he said, "Oh, if your father could only have seen to what uses they would put you." He then wrote a letter to his wife, and, on this same personage cautioning him to take care what he said, he calmly asked, "Are you going to lay down the law to me what I may write to my wife?" A clergyman named Antony Walsaers came to offer his ministrations, and supped with him and the Provost Marshal. Two more ministers also came, and two soldiers were stationed in the ante-room, an insult that annoyed the Advocate, though he continued as grave and selfpossessed as ever. He did not fear death, he said, but as a lawyer he could not understand for what he was to die, that he had transgressed no law, and that the judges had no right to try him, but he committed himself to the judgment of the just God. He undressed and went to bed, but could not sleep. Prayers and psalms were read to him, and this led to a good deal of theological conversation. He asked whether Grotius and Hoogenboets were likewise to die, but the clergymen only knew that they had not been sentenced. They were exceedingly struck with his perfect calmness, and his confession of entire faith. He was asked whether he wished to see his family, but he thought it better not to do so, not knowing how earnestly his two sons were entreating for permission. The Dowager Princess, Louise de Coligny, made earnest endeavours to go to her stepson and intercede with him; but Maurice avoided seeing her. He treated the matter as a melancholy necessity, having perhaps persuaded himself that so it was, and he spent all that morning in his cabinet with his shutters closed. Barneveldt took some food, dressed himself carefully, and read in his French Psalmbook till he was summoned into the great hall of judicature, where his judges were drawn up, and the sentence with its preamble was read aloud by the clerk. At the end, the prisoner said— CAMEO IX. Condemnation of Barneveldt. CAMEO IX. Execution Barneveldt. "The judges have put down many things which they had no right to draw from my confession. Let this protest be entered. I thought too that my lords, the States-General, would have had enough in my life and blood, and that my wife and children might keep what belongs to them. Is this my recompense for forty-three years' service?" There was no answer save that the President said, "Your sentence has been pronounced! Away-" pointing to one of the windows, which served for a doorway to the scaffold which projected into the Binnenhof, or principal square of the city, a place still showing that it had once been a park. It was crowded with an eager though stolid multitude, gazing at the scaffold, where a rough coffin was prepared, on which sat two soldiers playing at dice for the fate of the soul of the Advocate. Did any thought cross the mind of the prisoner of the strange likeness to another game of chance played by the guards of the Innocent? Out came the old man, leaning on his staff. He was heard to say, raising his hand to Heaven, "O God! what does man come to?" and again, "This is the reward of forty years' service to the state." The clergyman called on him to pray, and he asked for something to kneel upon, but nothing being at hand, he knelt down on the planks, his servant giving him his arm After a quarter of an hour's devotion, he rose, and with his servant's assistance took off his doublet, and then coming forward, said to the populace, "Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to my country. I have ever acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such I die." There was not a sound in answer. He took a silk cap from his servant and drew it over his eyes, saying, "Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my Heavenly Father, receive my spirit." He knelt down, but the executioner begged him to move to the other side, so that the full sunshine might not interfere with the aim. He complied, thus having his face towards his own house, took leave of his faithful servant, and said, "Be quick." The executioner took off his head with one sweep of the long two-handed sword, and many persons rushed forward to steep their handkerchiefs in the blood, or to cut splinters from the planks. His family were permitted to give him sepulture among themselves, and likewise to redeem the property for a nominal sum. The French ambassador, who had striven with all his might to save Barneveldt, was complained of as having tried to interfere in the state affairs. It would be satisfactory if James I. had incurred the same censure, but he loved princes better than republicans, and had come to regard Barneveldt with disfavour. The scaffold was left standing, and the sentence had been read aloud so that Grotius could hear it through the open window of his prison as he lay on his bed. Both he and Hoogenboets had been one with Barneveldt in opinions and actions, and they expected the same doom, while the same attempts were made to induce their families to imply their guilt by suing for their pardon. They were comparatively young men, with all their lives before them, but the same dignified resistance was shown. Hoogenboets said that if his wife and family should ask pardon, he would protest against it, and Marie van Reigensbergen, the brave wife of Hugo van Groot, said, "If he has deserved it, let them strike off his head." Grotius himself, however, faltered somewhat on his trial, offered confessions and explanations; but these amounted to nothing, as indeed he had no treason to confess, and would accuse no one. On the 18th of May, the two prisoners were brought down to the great hall, not in the least knowing whether they would not have to pass out through the fatal window into the Binnenhof; but at the close of their lengthy sentence, they found themselves condemned to perpetual imprisonment, with the confiscation of all their goods. The place was the strong fortress of Lowestein, situated at the confluence of the Meuse and the Waal, with the town of Gorcum facing it on the further side of the Waal, and Worcum opposite upon the Meuse. The place was inclosed within immense walls, ramparts, and moats, and the prisoners passed through thirteen locked doors before they reached their aparments, which were entirely separated from one another. However, their wives were permitted to see them, to cook their meals in the castle kitchen, and to attend to their wants; but all their property being sequestrated, this was to be done out of an allowance of twentyfour stivers, or two shillings per day. Grotius had five little children, and had been a wealthy man, so that the pinching must have been severe. Madame van Groot had indeed lent out among friends considerable sums, from which they supplied her, but the governer, Deventer, a personal enemy of Grotius, was wont to inspect her purchases of provisions, and deprive her of what he held to be in excess of the pittance provided. Grotius was shut up in two rooms, and allowed no out-door exercise. He was a very handsome man in the prime of life, and besides being a great scholar, a proficient in all manly exercises; and he could only keep himself in health by daily spending several hours in whipping an enormous top, which he had caused his wife to procure for him. The States betrayed how ashamed they were of their usage of him by forbidding his portrait to be sold, and destroying the copper plates of the engravings. He was, however, allowed to hold a literary correspondence with his learned friends, and to receive large chests of books from them. They sent him their scholarly treatises to look over, as in truth he was one of the most deeply learned men in Europe, and he himself began a work on the Jurisprudence of Holland, finding in such labours the exercise which his mind needed, as much as his limbs needed the gambols with the top. Nor did he ever complain, or condescend to make any kind of petition to the Government that so unjustly treated him. In the meantime poor Madame van Hoogenboets died, leaving six CAMEO IX. CAMEO XI Escape of Grotius. 1621. children, without being permitted to receive any care or kindness from her fellow-sufferer. Thus two years had passed, when a scheme for her husband's deliverance suggested itself to Marie van Groot, as she looked at the large chest which had been sent by Professor Erpenius, full of books, and which was in the study. These boxes were always forwarded through a Gorcum merchant in thread and ribbons, named Daatselaer, who had married a sister of Erpenius, a great friend of the Vrow van Groot. The house of the Daatselaers was Madame van Groot's house of call when she went on her shopping expeditions to Gorcum, and one day in March, 1621, she asked, as if in joke, whether her friends would be much disturbed if they found Herr van Groot in their house. "Oh no," said the lady; "pray send him hither; we will take good care of him.” She durst say no more, except that even had he wings like a bird he could hardly get out of Lowestein. But she had her plans. The chest that conveyed the books was not quite four feet long, and neither broad nor deep, and Grotius was a very tall man. However, on trying the experiment, he found himself able to curl himself into it, and that even when it was shut he could breathe. It was fastened down on him for two whole hours, during which Marie sat on the top of it, watching the hour-glass; and as by that time he was alive and able to move, it was decided that the attempt was feasible. The box had gone backwards and forwards so often full of nothing but Greek, Latin, and Hebrew books, that the guards had ceased to inspect anything so uncongenial. But, as the lady could not herself inspect the exit of the precious chest, she took her maid, a girl of twenty, Elsje van Honwening, into her confidence, and asked whether she would watch over the conveyance of such a freight. The girl asked what would be the penalty if she were discovered. "There is no legal penalty," said Grotius; "but I have not transgressed the laws, and you see what they have done to me." Elsje, however, declared herself ready to run any risk for her master. The Commandant Deventer was absent, and his wife had always been friendly, so Madame van Groot went to her and asked if the box of books might not be passed out the next morning on her authority. This request was granted, and the next morning, while a great storm was raging outside, Grotius and his wife prayed earnestly. Then, clad only in close-fitting linen clothes, with a pair of silk stockings, he got into the chest, a thick Greek Testament with some hanks of thread to support his head, and all the spaces stuffed with books or papers to prevent, as far as possible, his being shaken about and injured. Then his wife shut him in, locked the box, kissed the keyhole, gave the key to Elsje, disposed his clothes and slippers as if for him to get up, and then lying down in bed, drew the curtains and rang the bell. A servant came, and she called out that she found it too wet for her |