longer to lend his
countenance to the man's prostituted character."

_From a Letter from Durie at Basel, Oct. 3, 1654_:--"As
regards Morus's vices and profligacy, Hotton does not seem to
entertain that opinion of him; I know, however, that others speak
very ill of him, that his hands are against nearly everybody and
everybody's hands against him, and that many ministers even of the
Walloon Synod are doing their best to have him deprived of the
pastoral office. Nor here in Basel do I find men's opinion of him
different from that in Holland of those who like him least."

The fresh, particulars of information that Milton had received about
Morus and his alleged misdeeds are unsparingly brought out. The name
of the woman of bad character at Geneva with whom Morus was said to
have been implicated there, and the scandal about whom had driven him
from Geneva, has now been ascertained by Milton. It was Claudia
Pelletta; and of her name, and all the topographical details of
Morus's alleged meetings with her, there is enough and more than
enough. Claudia Pelletta at Geneva, and Bontia at Leyden, pull Morus
between them page after page: not that they only have claims, for in
one sentence we hear of an insulted widow somewhere in Holland, and
in another of a dubious female figure seen one rainy night with Morus
in a street in Amsterdam. But Bontia is still Milton's favourite. He
repeats the Latin epigram about her and Morus; he apologizes for
having hitherto called her Pontia, attributes the error to a
misreading of the MS. of that epigram when it first came from
Holland, but says he still thinks Pontia the prettier name; and,
using information that had recently reached him, though we have been
in prior possession of something equivalent (Vol. IV. p. 465), he
thus reminds Morus of his most memorable meeting with that brave
damsel:--

"You remember perhaps that day, nay I am sure you remember the day,
and the hour and the place too, when, as I think, you and Pontia
[he still keeps to the form 'Pontia'] last met in the house of
Salmasius--you to renounce the marriage-bond, she to make you name
the day for the nuptials. When she saw, on the contrary, that it
was your intention to dissolve the marriage-engagement made in the
seduction, then lo! your unmarried bride, for I will not call her
Tisiphone, not able to bear such a wrong, flew furiously at your
face and eyes with uncut nails. You who, o