The work of Heinsius as adviser for and business associate with his publishing friend was interrupted by various periods of public service, as he served as Ambassador both in Sweden and in Russia, but on being relieved from office, he always returned to his literary studies and to his friend’s publishing-office. It is somewhat surprising that the States-General should have favoured Heinsius with posts of honour, as he appears to have been wanting in public spirit, or at least in patriotic feeling. When, in 1674, the armies of Louis XIV. were carrying ruin and devastation through the territory of Holland, Heinsius, in a country retreat at Vianen (well out of the course of the campaigning) was amusing his leisure in composing verses in honour of the oppressor of his country, verses which he utilised later as a dedication to his _Virgil_. “The true country of Heinsius,” says his biographer, “was imperial Rome, and in looking upon Louis XIV. as Augustus, he thought of himself as a Horace or a Virgil.” The war with France, which continued for six years (1672-1678), a war which brought with it all the horrors of occupation of the country by invading armies, caused almost a complete cessation of all business undertakings and of all literary enterprises. The presses stopped work and the book-shops were closed. The whole energy of the people (excepting only in the case of an occasional dilettante like Heinsius) was concentrated in the defence of the country. Daniel Elzevir devoted a part of this period of enforced idleness to the preparation of a classified catalogue of his general stock, a catalogue more extensive and more comprehensive than any heretofore issued. Daniel died in 1680, in the midst of a long series of unfinished undertakings and of literary plans. Graevius, in sending the news to Heinsius, says, “This is a great loss to letters.” The philosopher Locke writes, “The death of Elzevir is a public misfortune.” Such indeed was the universal feeling throughout the world of letters and the community of scholars. With the death of Daniel, the history of the House of Elzevir comes to a close. Some printing of college theses was, in 1680, still being done by Abraham in Leyden, but the work of the great family, which had for nearly a century stood at the head of the book-making and of the bookselling business of Europe, occupying the first places alike among typographers, publishers, and booksellers, was completed. Daniel left no son, and the widow dying the year following, the concern was wound up by the administrators.