, or
they may have been [n]otched in by Cromwell in revising Milton's
English draft.]

The last letters to Louis XIV., Mazarin, and Charles Gustavus of
Sweden, bring us to within about two months of Cromwell's death, and
the last one of all, that to the King of Portugal, to within less
than a single month of the same. We have yet a farther trace of the
diplomacies proper to Milton's office round the dying Protector.
Here, however, it is not Milton that comes into view, but his
colleague or assistant, Andrew Marvell.

The Dutch Lord-Ambassador Nieuport, after having been absent in
Holland since November 1657, had been sent back by their High
Mightinesses, the States-General, to resume his post. The
complication of affairs in northern Europe by the movements of
Charles Gustavus, and the menacing attitude of that King not only
pretty generally all round the Baltic, but also towards the Dutch
themselves, had rendered Nieuport's renewed presence in London very
necessary. Newly commissioned and instructed, he made his voyage, and
was in the Thames on the night of the 23rd of July, though too late
to reach Gravesend that night. The arrival of an ambassador being
then an affair of much punctilio, he sent his son up the river in a
shallop, to inform Mr. Secretary Thurloe and Sir Oliver Fleming, the
master of the ceremonies, and to deliver to Thurloe a letter
requesting that the pomp of a public reception might be waived and he
might be permitted to take up his quarters quietly in the Dutch
Embassy, still furnished and ready, just as he had left it. Young
Mynheer Nieuport, coming to London on this errand, found things there
in unexpected confusion,--the Lord Protector at Hampton Court,
attending the death-bed of his daughter Lady Claypole, and leaving
business to itself, and Secretary Thurloe also out of town.
Fortunately, Thurloe was not then at Hampton Court, but only at his
own country-house two miles off. Thither young Nieuport rode at once.
He met Thurloe coming in his coach to Whitehall; whereupon Thurloe,
after all proper salutations, informed him that his Highness had
already heard of his father's arrival and had given orders for his
suitable reception. Meanwhile, would young Mr. Nieuport come into the
coach, so that they might drive back to Whitehall together? Arrived
at Whitehall, Thurloe immediately gave orders for the preparation of
one of his Highness's barges to be sent down to Gravesend, "with a
gentleman calle