The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1618-19 | Page 8

a dungeon nor a jail. Indeed the commonplace and domestic
character of the scenery in which these great events were transacted has
in it something pathetic. There was and still remains a two-storied
structure, then of modern date, immediately behind the antique hall of
the old Counts within the Binnenhof. On the first floor was a courtroom
of considerable extent, the seat of one of the chief tribunals of justice
The story above was divided into three chambers with a narrow
corridor on each side. The first chamber, on the north-eastern side, was
appropriated for the judges when the state prisoners should be tried. In
the next Hugo Grotius was imprisoned. In the third was Barneveld.
There was a tower at the north-east angle of the building, within which
a winding and narrow staircase of stone led up to the corridor and so to
the prisoners' apartments. Rombout Hoogerbeets was confined in
another building.
As the Advocate, bent with age and a life of hard work, and leaning on
his staff, entered the room appropriated to him, after toiling up the
steep staircase, he observed--
"This is the Admiral of Arragon's apartment."
It was true. Eighteen years before, the conqueror of Nieuwpoort had
assigned this lodging to the chief prisoner of war in that memorable
victory over the Spaniards, and now Maurice's faithful and trusted
counsellor at that epoch was placed in durance here, as the result of the
less glorious series of victories which had just been achieved.
It was a room of moderate dimensions, some twenty-five feet square,
with a high vaulted roof and decently furnished. Below and around him
in the courtyard were the scenes of the Advocate's life-long and
triumphant public services. There in the opposite building were the
windows of the beautiful "Hall of Truce," with its sumptuous carvings
and gildings, its sculptures and portraits, where he had negotiated with
the representatives of all the great powers of Christendom the famous
Treaty which had suspended the war of forty years, and where he was
wont almost daily to give audience to the envoys of the greatest
sovereigns or the least significant states of Europe and Asia, all of
whom had been ever solicitous of his approbation and support.
Farther along in the same building was the assembly room of the
States- General, where some of the most important affairs of the
Republic and of Europe had for years been conducted, and where he

had been so indispensable that, in the words of a contemporary who
loved him not, "absolutely nothing could be transacted in his absence,
all great affairs going through him alone."
There were two dull windows, closely barred, looking northward over
an irregular assemblage of tile-roofed houses and chimney-stacks,
while within a stone's throw to the west, but unseen, was his own
elegant mansion on the Voorhout, surrounded by flower gardens and
shady pleasure grounds, where now sat his aged wife and her children
all plunged in deep affliction.
He was allowed the attendance of a faithful servant, Jan Franken by
name, and a sentinel stood constantly before his door. His papers had
been taken from him, and at first he was deprived of writing materials.
He had small connection with the outward world. The news of the
municipal revolution which had been effected by the Stadholder had
not penetrated to his solitude, but his wife was allowed to send him
fruit from their garden. One day a basket of fine saffron pears was
brought to him. On slicing one with a knife he found a portion of a quill
inside it. Within the quill was a letter on thinnest paper, in minutest
handwriting in Latin. It was to this effect.
"Don't rely upon the States of Holland, for the Prince of Orange has
changed the magistracies in many cities. Dudley Carleton is not your
friend."
A sergeant of the guard however, before bringing in these pears, had
put a couple of them in his pocket to take home to his wife. The letter,
copies of which perhaps had been inserted for safety in several of them,
was thus discovered and the use of this ingenious device prevented for
the future.
Secretary Ledenberg, who had been brought to the Hague in the early
days of September, was the first of the prisoners subjected to
examination. He was much depressed at the beginning of it, and is said
to have exclaimed with many sighs, "Oh Barneveld, Barneveld, what
have you brought us to!"
He confessed that the Waartgelders at Utrecht had been enlisted on
notification by the Utrecht deputies in the Hague with knowledge of
Barneveld, and in consequence of a resolution of the States in order to
prevent internal tumults. He said that the Advocate had advised in the
previous month of March a