of the Excise in part security for money which Milton
had invested in their hands. In the deed of conveyance, still extant,
under the words at the end, "_Witness my hand and seal thus_,"
there follows the signature "JOHN MILTON," not in his own hand, but
recognisably in the fine and peculiar hand of that amanuensis to whom
he had dictated the sonnet in memory of his second wife about two
years before. In yet another hand is the date "7th May, 1660"; but
attached, to verify all, is Milton's family-seal of the double-headed
eagle. Milton, we can see, wanted some money for sudden and urgent
occasions, and his friend Cyriack advanced it. Cyriack and others
had, doubtless, been already about him for some days, imploring him
to hide himself, and devising the means; and that very night, or the
next, as we are to fancy, he is conveyed furtively out of his house
in Petty France to some obscure but suitable shelter. The three
children he has parted with, the eldest not yet fourteen years old,
the second not twelve, and the third just eight, are left under what
tendence there may be, hardly knowing what has happened, but
uncertain whether they shall ever again see their strange blind
father. All is dark, and we may drop the curtain.[1]

[Footnote 1: Sotheby's _Ramblings in Elucidation of Milton's
Autograph_, p. 129, and plate after p. 124. The document mentioned
was purchased in Aug. 1858, for L19, by Mr. Monckton Milnes (now
Lord Houghton), apparently under the impression that the signature
was Milton's own.]

CORRIGENDA AND ADDENDA IN VOLS. IV. AND V.

_Vol. IV. pp._ 272-273:--From Mrs. Everett Green's Calendar of
Domestic State Papers for the Third Year of the Commonwealth I learn
that the first meeting of the Council of State for that year was on
Feb. 17, 1650-51, and not on Feb. 19. There had been two meetings
before that of the 19th, and at the first of these Bradshaw had been
re-appointed President.

_Vol. IV. pp._ 416-418 _and_ 423-424:--To Milton's Letter
to the Oldenburg agent Hermann Mylius, translated and commented on
pp. 416-418, and to the story, as told at pp. 423-424, of the
Safeguard for the Count of Oldenburg's subjects obtained from the
English Council of State by the joint exertions of Mylius and Milton,
an interesting addition has turned up in the form of another Latin
letter from Milton to Mylius, preserved "in a collection of
autographs belonging to the Cardinal Bishop-Prince von
Schwartzenberg."