In the beginning of 1636[265] Grotius went to see the Cardinal, who complained bitterly that Grotius had written to Holland that the affairs of France were in a deplorable situation, and the French still on the point of making their peace. Grotius assured him it was a pure calumny: the Cardinal pretended that it was known to the French Ambassadors at the Hague. Grotius assured him these false reports owed their rise to the artifices of Pau and Aersens his declared enemies, that Camerarius the Swedish Ambassador in Holland, with whom he corresponded by letters, would attest the contrary; that this report was probably occasioned by an article inserted in the Brussels Gazette, that his letters had been intercepted, representing France as in the greatest declension, of which he had never had a thought; and that this was done with design to make him lose the friendship of his patrons. He added, that he had forgot his Country; that indeed he wished its preservation on account of the friends and the small estate he had in it; but that he had given himself entirely to Sweden, and was not so ignorant, not to know how much it imported Sweden that whilst she was in arms the Dutch should continue the war; nor so dishonest, to give counsels contrary to the interest of Sweden and of the High Chancellor, to whom he owed every thing; and that if his Eminence would put it in his power to do some service to France, he would much more chearfully refute these calumnies by his actions, than by his words. The Cardinal resumed an air of serenity, said several obliging things, and assured him that for the future he would behave to him with more openness. He reconducted him a pretty way, politely excusing himself that he did not go farther lest he should be oppressed by the croud that wanted to speak to him.