followed in the same course of reasoning, it may still be read with advantage as an excellent epitome of the arguments for the truth of Christianity. In the early part of 1621, after nearly two years had been passed by Grotius at Louvestein, the fertile invention of his wife devised the means of his escape. It was his practice to return the books, which he borrowed from his friends, in a large chest, in which his wife sent linen from the castle to be washed at Gorcum. During the first year of his imprisonment the guards invariably examined this chest before it left the castle, but as they continually found nothing but books and dirty linen, they gradually relaxed in their search, until at last it was wholly omitted. Grotius’s wife resolved to turn their negligence to her husband’s advantage. The chest was large enough to contain a man, and she prevailed upon him to try whether he could bear to be shut up for so long a time as would be necessary to convey the chest across the water to Gorcum. The experiment proved the scheme to be practicable, and the first favourable opportunity was seized for carrying it into execution. On the 22nd of March, during the absence of the governor from the castle, Grotius was placed in the chest, and holes having been bored in it by his wife in order to admit air, it was carried down from the castle by two soldiers on a ladder. One of the soldiers, suspecting something from the weight, insisted upon taking it to the governor’s house to be opened; but the governor’s wife, who was probably in the secret, told him she was well assured that the chest contained nothing but books, and ordered him to carry it to the boat. In this manner Grotius crossed the water and arrived safely at a friend’s house in Gorcum. He then passed through the streets in the disguise of a mason, and stepped into a boat which took him to Valvic in Brabant, from whence he afterwards escaped to Antwerp. Upon the first discovery of the trick which had been practised upon him by the wife of Grotius, the governor of Louvestein confined her rigorously; but she was discharged upon presenting a petition to the States-General.