speedy Acquaintance with the Hangman at Tyburn:  Another Squib against Milton, called The Censure of the Rota upon Mr. Milton’s Book:  Specimens of this Burlesque:  Republican Appeal to Monk, called Plain English:  Reply to the same, with another attack on Milton:  Popular Torrent of Royalism during the forty days of Interval between the Parliament of the Secluded Members and the Convention Parliament (March 16, 1659-60—­April 25, 1660):  Caution of Monk and the Council of State:  Dr. Matthew Griffith and his Royalist Sermon, The Fear of God and the King:  Griffith imprisoned for his Sermon, but forward Republicans checked or punished at the same time:  Needham discharged from his Editorship and Milton from his Secretaryship:  Resoluteness of Milton in his Republicanism:  His Brief Notes on Dr. Griffith’s Sermon:  Second Edition of his Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth:  Remarkable Additions and Enlargements in this Edition:  Specimens of these:  Milton and Lambert the last Republicans in the field:  Roger L’Estrange’s Pamphlet against Milton, called No Blind Guides:  Larger Attack on Milton by G. S., called The Dignity of Kingship Asserted:  Quotations from that Book; Meeting of the Convention Parliament, April 25, 1660:  Delivery by Greenville of the Six Royal Letters from Breda, April 28-May 1, and Votes of both Houses for the Recall of Charles:  Incidents of the following Week:  Mad impatience over the Three Kingdoms for the King’s Return:  He and his Court at the Hague, preparing for the Voyage home:  Panic among the surviving Regicides and other prominent Republicans:  Flight of Needham to Holland and Absconding of Milton from his house in Petty France:  Last Sight of Milton in that house.

* * * * *

BOOK I.

SEPTEMBER 1654—­JUNE 1657.

HISTORY:—­OLIVER’S FIRST PROTECTORATE CONTINUED.

BIOGRAPHY:—­MILTON’S LIFE AND SECRETARYSHIP THROUGH THE FIRST
PROTECTORATE CONTINUED.

THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON,

WITH THE

HISTORY OF HIS TIME.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

OLIVER’S FIRST PROTECTORATE CONTINUED:  SEPT. 3, 1654-JUNE 26, 1657.

Oliver’s First Protectorate extended over three years and six months in all, or from December 16, 1653 to June 26, 1657.  The first nine months of it, as far as to September 1654, have been already sketched; and what remains divides itself very distinctly into three Sections, as follows:—­

Section I:—­From Sept. 3, 1654 to Jan. 22, 1654-5.  This Section, comprehending four months and a half, may be entitled OLIVER AND HIS FIRST PARLIAMENT.

Section II:—­From Jan. 22, 1654-5 to Sept. 17, 1656.  This Section, comprehending twenty months, may be entitled BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENTS, OR THE TIME OF ARBITRARINESS.