[Footnote 1:  Council Order Books from July 8 to Sept. 2, 1658, giving minutes of fifteen meetings at Whitehall or Hampton Court, Cromwell present at the two first, viz.  July 8 (Whitehall), July 15 (Hampton Court), and at the sixth, viz.  July 29 (Hampton Court), but at no other; Thurloe, VII. 309, 320, 323, 340, 344, 354-356, 362-364, 366-367, 369-370; A Collection of Several Passages concerning his late Highness, Oliver Cromwell, in the Time of his Sickness (June 9, 1659, “London, Printed for Robert Ibbetson, dwelling in Smithfield, near Hosier Lane"); Cromwelliana, 174-178 (including an abridgment of the last tract); Whitlocke, IV. 334-335; Markham’s Life of Fairfax, 373-374; Ludlow, 610; Godwin, IV. 564-575; Carlyle, III. 367-376 (which may well be read again and again); Sewel’s History of the Quakers, 1. 242-245; Life of Newton by Sir David Brewster (1860), I. 14.]

CHAPTER II.

MILTON’S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE SECOND PROTECTORATE.

MILTON STILL IN OFFICE:  LETTER TO MR. HENRY DE BRASS, WITH MILTON’S
OPINION OF SALLUST:  LETTERS TO YOUNG RANELAGH AND HENRY OLDENBURG AT
SAUMUR:  MORUS IN NEW CIRCUMSTANCES:  ELEVEN MOBE STATE-LETTERS OF
MILTON FOR THE PROTECTOR (NOS.  CI.-CXI.):  ANDREW MARVELL BROUGHT IN
AS ASSISTANT FOREIGN SECRETARY AT LAST (SEPT. 1657):  JOHN DRYDEN NOW
ALSO IN THE PROTECTOR’S EMPLOYMENT:  BIRTH OF MILTON’S DAUGHTER BY HIS
SECOND WIFE:  SIX MORE STATE-LETTERS OF MILTON (NOS.  CXII.-CXIII.): 
ANOTHER LETTER TO MR. HENRY DE BRASS, AND ANOTHER TO PETER HEIMBACH: 
COMMENT ON THE LATTER:  DEATHS OF MILTON’S SECOND WIFE AND HER CHILD: 
HIS TWO NEPHEWS, EDWARD AND JOHN PHILLIPS, AT THIS DATE:  MILTON’S
LAST SIXTEEN STATE-LETTERS FOR OLIVER CROMWELL (NOS. 
CXVIII.-CXXXIII.), INCLUDING TWO TO CHARLES GUSTAVUS OF SWEDEN.  TWO
ON A NEW ALARM OF A PERSECUTION OF THE PIEDMONTESE PROTESTANTS, AND
SEVERAL TO LOUIS XIV.  AND CARDINAL MAZARIN:  IMPORTANCE OF THIS LAST
GROUP OF THE STATE-LETTERS, AND REVIEW OF THE WHOLE SERIES OF
MILTON’S PERFORMANCES FOR CROMWELL:  LAST DIPLOMATIC INCIDENTS OF THE
PROTECTORATE, AND ANDREW MARVELL IN CONNEXION WITH THEM:  INCIDENTS
OF MILTON’S LITERARY LIFE IN THIS PERIOD:  YOUNG GUNTZER’S
DISSERTATIO AND YOUNG KECK’S PHALAECIANS:  MILTON’S EDITION OF
RALEIGH’S CABINET COUNCIL:  RESUMPTION OF THE OLD DESIGN OF
PARADISE LOST AND ACTUAL COMMENCEMENT OF THE POEM:  CHANGE FROM
THE DRAMATIC POEM TO THE EPIC:  SONNET IN MEMORY OF HIS DECEASED
WIFE.

Through the Second Protectorate Milton remained in office just as before.  He was not, however, as had been customary before at the commencement of each new period of his Secretaryship, sworn in afresh.  Thurloe was sworn in, both as General Secretary and as full Councillor, and Scobell and Jessop were sworn in as Clerks;[1] but we hear of no such ceremony in the case of Milton.  His Latin Secretaryship, we infer, was now regarded as an excrescence from the Whitehall establishment, rather than an integral part of it.  An oath may have been administered to him privately, or his old general engagement may have sufficed.