windled
in April 1656 by an Italian named Guiseppe Armani, who has
moreover possessed himself fraudulently of 6000 pieces of eight
belonging to one Thomas Clutterbuck. There is a suit against Armani
at Leghorn; but Hosier, after going to great expenses, is deterred
from appearing there by threats of personal violence. "We therefore
request your Highness both to relieve this oppressed man, and also
to restrain the insolence of his adversary, according to your
accustomed justice."

(CXX.) TO LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE, _May_ 26, 1658:[1]--This is a
very momentous letter. It is Cromwell's appeal to the French King
in behalf once more of the poor Piedmontese Protestants:--"Most
serene and potent King, most august Friend and Ally,--Your Majesty
may remember that, at the time when there was treaty between us for
the renewing of our League [April 1655]--the highly auspicious
nature of which transaction is now testified by many resulting
advantages to both nations and much damage to the common
enemy--there fell out that miserable massacre of the People of the
Valleys, whose cause, forsaken on all hands and sorely beset, we
commended, with all ardour of heart and commiseration, to your pity
and protection. Nor do we think that your Majesty, of yourself, was
wanting in a duty so pious, nay so human, in as far as, by your
authority or by the respect due to your person, you could prevail
with the Duke of Savoy. We, certainly, and many other Princes and
States, were not wanting, in the matter of embassies, letters,
interposed entreaties, on the subject. After a most bloody
slaughter of both sexes and of every age, Peace was at last
granted, or rather a kind of more guarded hostility clothed with
the name of Peace: the conditions of the Peace were settled in your
town of Pignerol--hard conditions indeed, but in which wretched
and poor people that had suffered all that was dreadful and brutal
might easily acquiesce, if only, hard and unjust as they are, they
were to be stood to. They are _not_ stood to; for the promise
of each and all of them is eluded and violated by false
interpretation and various asides: many are thrown out of their
ancient abodes; many are interdicted from their native religion;
new tributes are exacted; a new citadel is hung over their heads,
whence soldiers frequently break forth, plundering or murdering all
they meet: in addition to all wh