three other young lords, the Count of Holac (a German), the Lord
George Fleetwood, and a great many knights and gentlemen, besides
the Ambassador's company. It was a very great feast, of seven
courses. The Swedish Ambassador was very courteous to me; but the
Dutch and others were reserved towards me, and I as much to
them."--Milton's Letter to the Swedish King in Cromwell's name
relates itself to this last incident. The King had written
specially to Cromwell announcing the happy news of the birth of his
son and heir; and Cromwell replies in this fashion:--"As it is
universally understood that all concerns of friends, whether
adverse or prosperous, ought to be of mutual and common interest
among them, the performance by your Majesty of the most agreeable
duty of friendship, by vouchsafing to impart to us your joy by
express letters from yourself, cannot but be extremely gratifying
to us, in regard that it is a sign of singular and truly kingly
civility in you, indisposed as you are to live merely for yourself,
so to be indisposed even to keep a joy to yourself, without feeling
that your friends and allies participate in the same. We duly
rejoice, therefore, in the birth of a Prince, to be the son of so
excellent a King, and the heir, we hope, of his father's valour and
glory; and we congratulate you on the same happy coincidence of
domestic good fortune and success in the field with which of old
that King of renowned fortitude, Philip of Macedon, was
congratulated--the birth of whose son Alexander and his conquest of
the powerful nation of the Illyrians are said to have been
simultaneous. For we make no question but the wresting of the
Kingdom of Poland by your arms from the Papal Empire, as it were a
horn from the head of the Beast, and your Peace made with the Duke
of Brandenburg, to the great satisfaction of all the pious, though
with growls from your adversaries, will be of very great
consequence for the peace and profit of the Church. May God grant
an end worthy of such signal beginnings; may He grant you a son
like his father in virtue, piety, and achievements! All which we
truly expect and heartily pray of God Almighty, already so
propitious to your affairs,"--It is clear that Cromwell desired to
be all the more polite to the Swedish monarch because of the long
delay of the Treaty with Count Bundt. That Treaty was going on
slowly; and we