rred my
getting off scatheless to being found in a ridiculous position
himself, I had this reward for my pains, that Milton, whom I had
treated so roughly, turned out my patron and sedulous body-guard.
Don't laugh, reader; but give best thanks, with me, to God, the most
good, the most great, and the most wise, deliverer."

This final version of the story of Du Moulin (in 1670, remember)
seems to have become current among those who, after the Restoration,
retained any interest in the subject. Thus, Aubrey, in his notes for
Milton's life, written about 1680, has a memorandum to this effect,
giving "Mr. Abr. Hill" as his authority: "His [Milton's] sharp
writing against Alexander More of Holland, upon a mistake,
notwithstanding he [Morus] had given him [Milton], by the ambassador,
all satisfaction to the contrary, viz. that the book called
_Clamor_ was writ by Peter Du Moulin. Well, that was all one
[said Milton]; he having writ it [the _Defensio Secunda_], it
should go into the world: one of them was as bad as the
other.'"--_Bentrovato_; but there is at least one vital
particular in which neither Du Moulin's amusing statement in 1670 nor
Aubrey's subsequent anecdote seems to be consistent with the exact
truth as already before us in the documents. The secret of the real
authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_ had been better and
longer kept than Du Moulin's statement would lead us to suppose. Even
Ulac in 1654, as we have seen, while declaring that Morus was not the
author, could not tell who else he was. Morus himself did then know,
having been admitted into the secret, probably from the first; and
several others then knew, having been told in confidence by
Salmasius, Morus, or Du Moulin. Charles II. himself seems to have
been informed. But that Morus had refrained from divulging the secret
generally, or communicating it in a precise manner to Milton, even at
the moment when he was frantically trying to avert Milton's wrath and
stop the publication of the _Defensio Secunda_, seems evident,
and must go to his credit. In the remonstrance with Thurloe, in May
1654, through the Dutch ambassador Nieuport, intended to stop the
publication when, it was just leaving the press, we hear only of the
denial of Morus that he was the author--nothing of any information
from him that Du Moulin was the real author; and, though Durie had
about the same time informed Milton in a letter from the Hague that
he had heard the book attribut