would be disgraced.”  What was his surprise, however, to find not only that Thurloe was not disgraced, but that he himself was thenceforth less in favour?  Thurloe, in justifying himself, had told Cromwell more about Stoupe than he previously knew, and “possessed Cromwell with such an ill opinion of him that after that he never treated him with any confidence."[1] If the story is true, Stoupe’s loss of favour dates from Jan. 1656-7, or two months before Milton’s letter to Bigot.  It would seem, however, that he was still employed in some way as one of Thurloe’s agents; and hence Milton’s use of him to convey the cash to France.[2] That Milton knew Stoupe would have been certain without this evidence; but the evidence is interesting.[3]

[Footnote 1:  Burnet’s Hist. of his Own Time, Book I.]

[Footnote 2:  Of the L2000 sent from London to Geneva in June 1655 as the first instalment of relief for the Piedmontese Protestants (Cromwell’s own subscription) L500 had been sent through Stoupe.  See ante p. 190.]

[Footnote 3:  Stoupe might make a good character in any historical novel of the time of the Protectorate.  His career did not end then.  He was to be “a brigadier-general in the French armies,” and one knows not what else, before Burnet made his acquaintance.]

Of the following State-Letters of Milton, all belonging to our present section of his life, five bear date before his second marriage, and five after.  Those after the marriage come at longer intervals than those before:—­

(XCI.) TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL, Oct. 1656:—­Peace with Portugal being happily ratified, the Protector is despatching THOMAS MAYNARD to be his consul in that country.  This letter is to introduce him and bespeak access for him to his Majesty.

(XCII.) TO THE KING OF SWEDEN, Oct. 1656:—­A soldierly knight, Sir William Vavasour, who has been in England, is now returning to his military duty under the Swedish King.  The Protector need hardly recommend back to his Majesty a servant so distinguished, but ventures to do so, and to suggest that he should be paid his arrears.

(XCIII.) TO THE KING OF PORTUGAL, Oct. 1656:—­An English ship-master, called Thomas Evans, is going to Lisbon to prosecute his claim for L7000 against the Brazil Company, being damages sustained by the seizure of his ship, the Scipio, six years before, by the Portuguese Government, while he was in the Company’s service.  The Treaty provides for such claims; and, though the Protector has written before on the subject generally, he cannot but write specially in this case.

(XCIV.) TO THE SENATE OF HAMBURG, Oct. 16, 1656:—­Long ago, in the time of King Charles, two brothers, James and Patrick Hays, being the lawful heirs of their brother Alexander, who had died intestate in Hamburg, had obtained a decree in their favour in the Hamburg Court, assigning