ctor, or something higher still, in Cromwell's
Established Church. _Can_ his secret have possibly been then
known? _Can_ the Council have known that the man who petitioned
the Protector for indulgence, and to whom they now advised the
Protector to grant it, was the author of the most vehement and bitter
book that had ever been written on the Royalist side, the man who had
abused the Commonwealth men as "robbers, traitors, parricides" and
"plebeian scoundrels," who had written of Cromwell "Verily an egg is
not liker an egg than Cromwell is like Mahomet," and who had capped
all his other politenesses about Milton by calling him "more vile
than Cromwell, damned than Ravaillac"?[1]

[Footnote 1: Dr. Peter du Moulin did become a Vicar in Cromwell's
Established Church. He was inducted into the Vicarage of Bradwell, in
Bucks, Oct. 24, 1657, but quitted it in a few days, apparently for
something better (Wood's Fasti, II. 195: Note by Cole).]

SECTION III: FROM SEPTEMBER 1656 TO JUNE 1657, OR THROUGH THE FIRST
SESSION OF OLIVER'S SECOND PARLIAMENT.

ANOTHER LETTER FROM MILTON TO MR. RICHARD JONES: DEPARTURE OF LADY
RANELAGH FOR IRELAND: LETTER FROM MILTON TO PETER HEIMBACH: MILTON'S
SECOND MARRIAGE: HIS SECOND WIFE, KATHARINE WOODCOCK: LETTER TO
EMERIC BIGOT: MILTON'S LIBRARY AND THE BYZANTINE HISTORIANS: M.
STOUPE: TEN MORE STATE-LETTERS BY MILTON FOR THE PROTECTOR (NOS.
XCI.-C.): MORLAND, MEADOWS, DURIE, LOCKHART, AND OTHER DIPLOMATISTS
OF THE PROTECTOR, BACK IN LONDON: MORE EMBASSIES AND DISPATCHES OVER
LAND AND SEA: MILTON STANDING AND WAITING: HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE
PROTECTORATE GENERALLY.

Not much altogether is recoverable of Milton's life through that
section of the Protectorate which coincides with the first Session of
the Second Parliament (Sept. 17, 1656-June 26, 1657). What is
recoverable will connect itself with (1) Three Private Epistles of
his dated in these nine months, and (2) The series of his
State-letters in the same period. To Richard Jones, _alias_
young Ranelagh, still at Oxford with Oldenburg, Milton, four days
after the meeting of the Parliament, addressed another letter in that
tone of Mentorship which he seems to have thought most suitable for
the youth:--

"To the Noble youth, RICHARD JONES.

"Preparing again and again to reply to your last letter, I was
first prevented, as you know, by some sudden pieces of business, of
such a kind as are apt to be mine; then I heard you were