The Death of Grotius.
What were his real motives for refusing Christina's offers, or in what place he ultimately intended to fix himself, is not known.
The vessel in which he embarked had scarcely sailed from Lübec, when it was overtaken by a violent storm, and obliged, on the 17th August, to take shelter in a port fourteen miles distant from Dantzic. Grotius went from it in an open wagon to Lübec, and arrived very ill at Rostock[[077]] on the 26th August. No one, there, knew him: his great weakness determined him to call in the aid of a physician: one accordingly attended him: his name was Stochman. On feeling Grotius's pulse, he said his indisposition proceeded from weakness and fatigue, and that, with rest and some restoratives, he might recover; but, on the following day he changed his opinion. Perceiving that the weakness of Grotius increased, and that it was accompanied with a cold sweat and other symptoms indicating an exhaustion of nature, the physician announced that the end of his patient was near. Grotius then asked for a clergyman. John Quistorpius was brought to him. Quistorpius, in a letter to Calovius, gives the following particulars of Grotius's last moments:
"You are desirous of hearing from me, how that Phoenix of Literature, Hugo Grotius, behaved in his last moments, and I am going to tell you. He embarked at Stockholm for Lübec, and after having been tossed for the three days, by a violent tempest, he was shipwrecked, and got to shore on the coast of Pomerania, from whence he came to our town of Rostock, distant above sixty miles, in an open wagon through wind and rain. He lodged with Balleman; and sent for M. Stochman, the physician, who observing that he was extremely weakened by years, by what he suffered at sea, and by the inconveniences attending the journey, judged that he could not live long. The second day after Grotius's arrival in this town, that is, on the 18th of August, O.S. he sent for me, about nine at night, I went, and found him almost at the point of death: I said, 'There was nothing I desired more, than to have seen him in health, that I might have the pleasure of his conversation.' He answered, 'God had ordered it otherwise.' I desired him: to prepare himself for a happier life, to acknowledge that he was a sinner, and to repent of his faults: and, happening to mention the publican, who acknowledged that he was a sinner, and asked God's mercy; he answered, 'I am that publican.' I went on, and told him that he must have recourse to Jesus Christ, without whom there is no salvation.'
"He replied, 'I place all my hope in Jesus Christ.'
The Death of Grotius.
"I began to repeat aloud in German, the prayer which begins Herr Jesu:[[078]] he followed me in a very low voice; with his hands clasped. When I had done, I asked him, 'if he understood me.' He answered, 'I understand you very well.' I continued to repeat to him those passages of the word of God, which are commonly offered to the remembrance of dying persons; and asking him, 'if he understood me,' he answered, 'I heard your voice, but I did not understand what you said.'
"These were his last words; soon afterwards he expired; just at midnight. His body was delivered to the physicians, who took out his bowels. I easily obtained leave to bury them in our principal church, which is dedicated to the Virgin."
His corpse, was afterwards carried to Delft, and deposited in the tomb of his ancestors. He wrote this modest epitaph for himself,
"GROTIUS HIC HUGO EST, BATAVUM
CAPTIVUS ET EXSUL,
LEGATUS REGNI, SUECIA MAGNA, TUI."