wedes, the Protestants of Transylvania and other eastern
parts, perhaps even the Russians, all, so far as Cromwell's influence
could go, were to be brought to a common understanding for the
promotion of Protestant interests throughout the world and the
defiance of all to the contrary. It was Durie's old dream of
Pan-Protestantism redreamt by a man whose state was kingly, and who
had the means of turning his dreams into realities. Now,
consequently, in the service of that dream, as in his service
generally,

"Thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest."

While so many were thus coming and going, at L800 a year, L1000 a
year, or L5000 a year, blind Milton, with his L200 a year, could only
"stand and wait," the stationary Latin drudge. The return of his old
assistant Meadows from Portugal may again have relieved him of
somewhat of the drudgery; for, though Meadows was designated for the
new mission to Denmark Feb. 24, 1656-7, he did not actually set out
for Denmark till the following August, and there is something like
proof that in the interval, envoy though he now was, he resumed
secretarial duty at Whitehall under Thurloe. His renewed presence in
London may account for the comparative rarity of Milton's
State-Letters from Dec. 1656 to April 1657, and also for the fact
that then there follows a total blank of four months in the series,
bringing us precisely to August, when Meadows was preparing to go
away again. What passed during these months we already know. The
great question of Kingship or continued Protectorship, which had been
in suspense during those months of March and April in which Milton
had written his last four letters, had been brought to a close May 8,
when Cromwell at last decisively refused the Crown; and the First
Session of his Second Parliament had accordingly ended, June 26, not
in his coronation, as had been expected, but in his inauguration in
that Second Protectorship the constitution of which had been framed
by the Parliament in their so-called _Petition and
Advice_.--What may have been Milton's thoughts on the Kingship
question we can pretty easily conjecture. Almost to a certainty, he
was one of the private "_Contrariants_," one of those Oliverians
who, with Lambert, Fleetwood, and most of the Army-men, objected
theoretically to a return to Kingship, feared it would be fatal, and
were glad therefore when Cromwell declined it and accepted the
const