can hardly go on one of the river excursions," he remarked; "they
are so mixed." And the landlord, with a lunch at two florins, fifty,
in his mind, which it was desirable that as many persons as possible
should eat and pay for, heartily agreed with him. None the less it
seemed well to join the excursion to Gorinchem; and thence we steamed
on a fine cloudy Sunday, the river whipped grey by a strong cross
wind, and the little ships that beat up and passed us, all aslant. At
Gorinchem (pronounced Gorcum) we changed at once into another steamer,
a sorry tub, as wide as it was short, and steamed to Woudrichem
(called Worcum) hoping to explore the fortress of Loevenstein. But
Loevenstein is enisled and beyond the reach of the casual visitor,
and we had therefore to sit in the upper room of the Bellevue inn,
overlooking the river, and await the tub's deliberate return, while
the tugs and the barges trailed past. Save for modifications brought
about by steam, the scene can be now little different from that in
the days when Hugo Grotius was imprisoned in the castle.

The philosopher's escape is one of the best things in the history of
wives. Two ameliorations were permitted him by Maurice--the presence
of the Vrouw Grotius and the solace of books. As it happened, this
lenience could not have been less fortunately (or, for Grotius, more
fortunately) framed. Books came continually to the prisoner, which,
when read, were returned in the same chest that conveyed his linen to
the Gorcum wash. At first the guard carefully examined each departing
load; but after a while the form was omitted. Grotius's wife, a woman
of no common order (when asked why she did not sue for her husband's
pardon, she had replied, "I will not do it: if he have deserved it let
them strike off his head"), was quick to notice the negligence of the
guard, and giving out that her husband was bedridden, she concealed
him in the chest, and he was dumped on a tjalck and earned over to