35/77 Grotius's conjectures were but too true: and all that he and his friends could do to procure his return was absolutely fruitless. He was now at the height of his glory by the prodigious success of his admirable book _Of the rights of war and peace_, which a celebrated writer[147] justly styles a master-piece. He began it in 1623 at Balagni, and in 1625 it was published at Paris. It was the famous Nicholas Peyresc, the Mecaenas of his age and the ornament of Provence, who engaged Grotius to handle this subject. He writes to that worthy magistrate, Jan. |