at Charenton. There is a
letter to him of April 17, 1653, saying his non-attendance there was
"much to his prejudice." (Macray's Cal. of Clarendon Papers, II.
193).]

In August 1657 Milton, after three months of total rest, so far as
the records show, from the business of writing foreign Letters for
the Protector, resumed that business. We have attributed his release
from it for so long to the fact that his old assistant MEADOWS was
again in town, and available in the Whitehall office, in the interval
between his return from Portugal and his departure on his new mission
to Denmark; and the coincidence of Milton's resumption of this kind
of duty with the precise time of Meadows's preparations for his new
absence is at least curious. Though it had been intended that he
should set out for Denmark immediately after his appointment to the
mission in February, he had been detained for various reasons; and
now in August, the great war between Denmark and Sweden having just
begun, he was to set out in company with another envoy: viz.
MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM JEPHSON, whom Cromwell had selected as a
suitable person for a contemporary mission, to the King of Sweden
(ante p. 312). It will be observed that eight of the following ten
Letters of Milton, all written in August or September 1657, and
forming his first contribution of letters for the Second
Protectorate, relate to the missions of Jephson and Meadows:--

(CI.) To CHARLES X., KING OF SWEDEN, _August_ 1657:--His
Highness has heard with no ordinary concern that war has broken out
between Sweden and Denmark. [He had received the news August 13:
see ante p. 313.] He anticipates great evils to the Protestant
cause in consequence. He sends, therefore, the most Honourable
WILLIAM JEPHSON, General, and member of his Parliament, as
Envoy-extraordinary to his Majesty for negotiation in this and in
other matters. He begs a favourable reception for Jephson.

(CII.) TO THE COUNT OF OLDENBURG, _August_ 1657:--On his way
to the King of Sweden, then in camp near Lubeck, JEPHSON would
have to pass through several of the German states, and first of all
through the territories of this old and assured friend of the
English Commonwealth and of the Protector (see Vol. IV. pp. 424,
480-1, 527, 635-6). Cromwell, therefore, introduces JEPHSON, and
requests all furtherance for him.

(CIII.) TO THE CONSULS AND SENATE OF BREMEN, _August_
1657:--Also to introduce a