r that, assailed
and besieged as you are on all hands by bitter enemies, you were
looking round, and no wonder, to see where you might, in the last
extremity, should it come to that, find a suitable refuge, and that
England was most to your mind, I rejoiced on more accounts than one
that you had come to this conclusion,--one reason being the hope of
having you here, and another the delight that you should have so
high an opinion of my country; but the joy was counterbalanced by
the regret that I did not then see any prospect of a becoming
provision for you among us here, especially as you do not know
English. Now, however, it has happened most opportunely that a
certain French minister here, of great age, died a few days ago.
The persons of most influence in the congregation, understanding
that you are by no means safe where you are at present, are very
desirous (I report this not from vague rumour, but on information
from themselves) to have you chosen to the place of that minister:
in fact, they invite you; they have resolved to pay the expenses of
your journey; they promise that you shall have an income equal to
the best of any French minister here, and that nothing shall be
wanting that can contribute to your pleasant discharge of the
pastoral duty among them. Wherefore, take my advice, Reverend Sir,
and fly hither as soon as possible, to people who are anxious to
have you, and where you will reap a harvest, not perhaps so rich in
the goods of this world, but, as men like you most desire,
numerous, I hope, in souls; and be assured that you will be most
welcome here to all good men, and the sooner the better. Farewell.

"Westminster: April 21, 1659."

It is clear from this letter that Milton had never heard of the
scandals against M. Labadie's moral character, or, if he had, utterly
disbelieved them, and regarded him simply as a convert from Roman
Catholicism whose passionate and aggressive Protestant fervour had
brought intolerable and unjust persecution upon him in France. Durie
was his informant; and, for all we can now know, Milton's judgment
about Labadie may have been the right one, and the traditional French
account of him to this day may be wrong. It is certainly strange,
however, to find Milton befriending with so much readiness and zeal
this French Protestant minister, against whom there were exactly such
scandals abroad as those which he had himself bel