L COMPARED
WITH THE ACTUAL ADMINISTRATION BY THE _COMMITTEE OF SAFETY_ AND
THE _WALLINGFORD-HOUSE COUNCIL OF OFFICERS_: MILTON STILL
NOMINALLY IN THE LATIN SECRETARYSHIP: MONEY WARRANT OF OCT. 25,
1659, RELATING TO MILTON, MARVELL, AND EIGHTY-FOUR OTHER OFFICIALS:
NO TRACE OF ACTUAL SERVICE BY MILTON FOR THE NEW _COMMITTEE OF
SAFETY_: HIS MEDITATIONS THROUGH THE TREATY BETWEEN THE
WALLINGFORD-HOUSE GOVERNMENT AND MONK IN SCOTLAND: HIS MEDITATIONS
THROUGH THE COMMITTEE-DISCUSSIONS AS TO THE FUTURE MODEL OF
GOVERNMENT: HIS INTEREST IN THIS AS NOW THE PARAMOUNT QUESTION, AND
HIS COGNISANCE OF THE MODELS OF HARRINGTON AND THE ROTA CLUB:
WHITLOCKE'S NEW CONSTITUTION DISAPPOINTING TO MILTON: TWO MORE
LETTERS TO OLDENBURG AND YOUNG RANELAGH: GOSSIP FROM ABROAD IN
CONNECTION WITH THESE LETTERS: MORUS AGAIN, AND THE COUNCIL OF FRENCH
PROTESTANTS AT LOUDUN: END OF THE WALLINGFORD-HOUSE INTERRUPTION.

_THIRD STAGE OF THE ANARCHY, OR THE SECOND RESTORATION OF THE
RUMP_ (DEC. 1659-FEB. 1659-60):--MILTON'S DESPONDENCY AT THIS
PERIOD: ABATEMENT OF HIS FAITH IN THE RUMP: HIS THOUGHTS DURING THE
MARCH OF MONK FROM SCOTLAND AND AFTER MONK'S ARRIVAL IN LONDON: HIS
STUDY OF MONK NEAR AT HAND AND MISTRUST OF THE OMENS: HIS INTEREST
FOR A WHILE IN THE QUESTION OF THE PRECONSTITUTION OF THE NEW
PARLIAMENT PROMISED BY THE RUMP: HIS ANXIETY THAT IT SHOULD BE A
REPUBLICAN PARLIAMENT BY MERE SELF-ENLARGEMENT OF THE RUMP: HIS
PREPARATION OF A NEW REPUBLICAN PAMPHLET: THE PUBLICATION POSTPONED
BY MONK'S SUDDEN DEFECTION FROM THE RUMP, THE ROASTING OF THE RUMP IN
THE CITY, AND THE RESTORATION OF THE SECLUDED MEMBERS TO THEIR PLACES
IN THE PARLIAMENT: MILTON'S DESPONDENCY COMPLETE.

With what feelings was it that Milton found himself once more in the
employment of his old masters, the original Republicans or
Commonwealth's-men? That there may have been some sense of
awkwardness in the re-connexion is not unlikely. Had he not for six
years been a most conspicuous Cromwellian? Had he not justified again
and again in print Cromwell's _coup d'etat_ of 1653, by which
the Rump had been turned out of power, and which the now Restored
Rumpers, and especially such of their leaders as Vane, Scott,
Hasilrig, and Bradshaw, were bound to remember as Cromwell's
unpardonable sin, and the woeful beginning of an illegitimate
interregnum? He had justified it, hardly anonymously, in his Letter
to a Gentleman in the Country, published in May 1653, only a
fortnight