them all the said Alexander’s property, except dower for his widow.  From that day to this, however, chiefly by the influence of Albert van Eizen, a man of consequence in Hamburg, they have been kept out of their rights.  They are in extreme poverty and have applied to the Protector.  As he considers it the first duty of his Protectorate to look after such cases, he writes this letter.  It is to request the Hamburg Senate to see that the two brothers have the full benefit of the old decision of the Court.  Further delay has been threatened, he hears, in the form of an appeal to the Chamber of Spires.  That such an appeal is illegal will appear by the signed opinions of English lawyers which he forwards.  “But, if entreaty is of no avail, it will be necessary, and that by the common right of nations, to resort to measures of retaliation.”  His Highness hopes this may be avoided by the prudence of the Senate.

(XCV.) TO LOUIS XIV.  OF FRANCE, Nov. 1656:—­No answer has yet been received to his Highness’s former letter, of May 14, on the subject of the claim of Sir John Dethicke, then Lord Mayor of London, and his partner William Wakefield, on account of the capture of a ship of theirs in 1649 by a pirate acting for Charles Stuart, and the insolent detention of the same by M. L’Estrades, the French Governor of Dunkirk (see the Letter, ante p. 253).  Perhaps the delay had arisen from the fact that M. L’Estrades was then away with the army in Flanders; but “now he is living in Paris itself, or rather fluttering about with impunity in city and court enriched with the spoils of our people.”  His Highness now imperatively demands immediate and strict attention to the matter.  It is one of positive obligation by the Treaty; and the honour and good faith of His French Majesty are directly concerned.—­It is a curious coincidence that within a day or two of the writing of this strong letter by Milton in behalf of Sir John Dethicke, that knight should have solemnised Milton’s marriage with Katharine Woodcock.  Nov. 12 was the date of the marriage; and, as Dethicke is spoken of in this letter as no longer in his Mayoralty, it must have been written after Lord Mayor’s day, i.e. after Nov. 9, 1656.

(XCVI.) TO FREDERICK III., KING OF DENMARK, Dec. 1856:—­This is another of Cromwell’s fervid Protestant letters, very much in the strain of those four months before to the States-General of the United Provinces and Charles Gustavus of Sweden, and indeed, with identical expressions.  First he acknowledges letters from his Danish Majesty, of date Feb. 16, received through the worthy Simon de Pitkum, his Majesty’s agent.  They have been so gratifying, and the matter of them is so important, that his Highness has been looking about for a suitable person to be sent as confidential minister to Copenhagen.  Such a person he hopes to send soon:  meanwhile a letter may convey some thoughts about the state of Europe that are much occupying