across the Channel on that event there have to be interwoven Cromwell’s thanks to the King and the Cardinal for having so punctually kept their faith with him by the delivery of the town to Lockhart.  Who shall express the complex message?  None but Milton.  Finally, Cromwell would stretch his hand eastward across the seas to grasp that of the Swedish Charles Gustavus struggling with his peculiar difficulties, to give him brotherly cheer in the midst of them, brotherly hope also that they two, whoever else in a generation of hucksters, may yet live to lead in a glorious Protestant League for the overthrow of Babylon and the woman blazing in scarlet.  Who interprets between hero and hero?  Always and only the blind Milton.  Positively, in reading Milton’s despatches for Cromwell on such subjects as the persecutions of the Vaudois and the scheme of a Protestant European League, one hardly knows which is speaking, the secretary or the ruler.  Cromwell melts into Milton, and Milton is Cromwell eloquent and Latinizing.[2]

[Footnote 1:  With one exception, all the State-letters of Milton, from the beginning of his Secretaryship to the death of Cromwell, that have been preserved either in the Printed Collection or in the Skinner Transcript, have now been inventoried, and, as far as possible, dated and elucidated in the text of these volumes.  The exception is a brief scrap thrown in at the end of the Letters for Cromwell both in the Printed Collection and in the Skinner Transcript, but omitted by Phillips in his translation as not worthwhile.  It was not written for Cromwell or his Council, but only for the Commissioners of the Great Seal—­whether for those under the Protectorate, or for their predecessors, does not appear, though perhaps that might be ascertained.  The scrap may be numbered at this point, though inserted only as a note:—­(CXXXIII.) “We, Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, &c., desire that the Supreme Court of the Parliament of Paris will, on request, take such steps that Miles, William, and Maria Sandys, children of the lately deceased William Sandys and his wife Elizabeth Soame, English by birth and minors, may be able, from Paris, where they are now under protection of the said Court, to return to us forthwith, and will deliver the said children into the charge of the Scotchman James Mowat, a good and honest man, to whom we have delegated this charge, that he may receive them where they are and bring them to us; and we engage that, on opportunity of the same sort offered, there will be a return from this Court of the like justice and equity to any subjects of France.”]