Grotius displayed great precocity of talents. At the age of fifteen, he accompanied the Dutch ambassador, Barneveldt, into France, and was honoured by several marks of esteem by Henry the Fourth, who at that age discovered extraordinary powers in the mind of Grotius, but could not help expressing his surprise, that the States should send a youth _without a beard_ as an assistant to their ambassador; upon which the stripling astonished the great Henry by this brilliant reply: “Had my country conceived that your Majesty measured ability by the length of the beard, they would have sent in my room a _he goat of Norway_.” At seventeen he pleaded as a civilian at the bar in his own country, and was not twenty-four when appointed attorney general. He escaped from the castle of Louvestein, where he was condemned to be imprisoned for life, for the share he had in the affairs which proved the ruin of Barneveldt, in the following interesting manner: his wife, Maria Van Reygersbergen, who was most tenderly attached to him, and a lady of great learning and accomplishments, conciliated the esteem of the wife of the governor of the castle so far as to obtain permission, during the absence of the governor one day, to have removed from her husband’s apartment a large quantity of books, which he had borrowed of a friend at Gorcum: by the address and excellent management of a servant maid, Grotius occupied the place of the books in the trunk; he was safely conveyed from the castle, not without imminent peril of being drilled through the body, in consequence of the porters who carried him down stairs, suspecting that the trunk held a more learned treasure, than that which it was said to contain. Grotius took refuge in France, which he quitted in consequence of the illiberal conduct of the Cardinal de Richlieu towards him, and accepted of an invitation from that singular princess Christina, queen of Sweden, who was greatly attached to him, and made him her ambassador at Paris, where the Cardinal gave him much trouble, in consequence of his not yielding precedence to him. When Grotius had breathed his last, his countrymen felt contrition for their oppression, and struck a medal in honour of him, on which he is styled, “The Oracle of Delft, the Phœnix of his Country.” ——“This common body, “Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, “Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide.” _Anth. and Cleop._ Act I. Sc. 4. The lines of Horace may be well applied to this great man; Urit enim fulgore suo, qui praergravat artes Infra se positas: extinctus amabitur idem.