his way through the dark and rain over the mile and a half
of road or cross-road intervening between Newport and the
Castle. His object was to see the commandant, Captain
Bowerman. After some considerable time, spent under
the shelter of the gateway, he was admitted and did see
Captain Bowerman, but only to find him sitting sulkily with
about a dozen strange officers, who were evidently his masters
for the moment, and prevented his being in the least com-
municative. Nothing was left for the Colonel but to grope
his way back to Newport. It was near midnight when, with
his clothes drenched with wet, he reached the King's lodgings;
and there, what a change! Guards all round the house;
guards at every window; sentinels in the passages, and up to
the very
door of the King's chamber, armed with matchlocks
and with their matches burning! Major Rolph, glad to be
out of the business, had gone to bed. They managed to rouse
him, and to get the sentinels, with their smoke, removed to a
more tolerable distance from the King's chamber-door. Then,
for an hour or more, there was an anxious colloquy in the
King's chamber, the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of
Lindsey urging some desperate attempt to escape, but the
King dubious and full of objections. Nothing could be done;
and, about one o'clock, the Earl and the Colonel retired,
leaving the King to rest, with the Duke in attendance upon
him. There were then several hours of hush within, disturbed
by sounds of moving and tramping without; but between
five and six in the morning there came a loud knocking at
the door of the King's dressing-room. When it had been
opened, after some delay, a number of officers entered, headed
by Colonel Cobbet. Making their way into the King's
chamber, they informed him that they had instructions to
remove him. On his asking whither, they answered, "To the
Castle;" and, on his farther asking whether they meant
Carisbrooke Castle, they answered, after some hesitation, that
their orders were to remove him out of the island altogether,
and that the place was to be Hurst Castle on the adjacent
Hampshire mainland. Remarking that they could not have
named a worse place, the King rose, was allowed to summon

the Earl of Lindsey and all the rest of his household, and had breakfast. At eight o'clock coaches and horses were ready, and the King, having chosen about a dozen of his most confidential servants to accompany him, and taken a farewell of the rest of the sorrowing company, placed himself in charge of Colonel Cobbet and the troop of horse waiting to be his escort. Having seated himself in his coach, he invited Mr. Harrington, Mr. Herbert, and Mr. Mildmay to places beside him. Colonel Cobbet, as the commander of the party, was about to enter the coach also, when his Majesty put up his foot by way of barrier; whereupon Cobbet, somewhat abashed, contented himself with his horse. The cavalcade then set out, gazed after by all Newport, the Duke of Richmond allowed to accompany it for two miles. A journey of some eight miles farther brought them to the western end of the island, a little beyond Yarmouth; whence a vessel conveyed them, over the little strip of intervening sea, to Hurst Castle that same afternoon (Dec. 1). The so-called Castle was a strong, solitary, stone blockhouse, which had been built, in the time of Henry VIII., at the extremity of a long narrow spit of sand and shingle projecting from the Hampshire coast towards the Isle of Wight. It was a rather dismal place; and the King's heart sank as he entered it, and was confronted by a grim fellow with a bushy black beard, who announced himself as the captain in command. The possibility of private assassination flashed on the King's mind at the sight of such a jailor. But, Colonel Cobbet having superseded the rough phenomenon, the King was reassured, and things were arranged as comfortably as the conditions would permit.1

Meanwhile Fairfax and the Army, by whose orders, all punctually written and dated, this abduction of the King had been effected, were on the move to take advantage of it. On Monday the 27th of November, the Commons, instead of taking up the consideration of the Grand Army Remonstrance

1 Rushworth, VII. 1344-8 (narrative of Colonel Cook); 1b. 1351 and Parl. Hist. III. 1147-8 (Letter to Parliament from Major Rolph and Captains Hawes and Bowerman); and Sir Thomas Her

bert's Memoirs of Charles I. 112-124. The day of the King's abduction from Newport has been variously dated by historians. It was really Friday, Dec.

1.

as they had proposed, had again adjourned the subject. On Wednesday the 29th, accordingly, there was a fresh manifesto from Fairfax and his Council of Officers at Windsor. After complaining of the delays over the Remonstrance and of the continued infatuation of the Commons over the farce of the Newport Treaty, they proceeded," For the present, as the case stands, we apprehend ourselves obliged, in duty to God, "this kingdom, and good men therein, to improve our utmost "abilities, in all honest ways, for the avoiding those great "evils we have remonstrated, and for prosecution of the "good things we have propounded;" and they concluded with this announcement, "For all these ends we are now drawing up with the Army to London, there to follow Pro"vidence as God shall clear our way." This document, signed by Rushworth, reached the Commons on the 30th. They affected to ignore it, and still refused, by a majority of 125 to 58, to proceed to the consideration of the Army's Remonstrance. Next day, Friday Dec. 1, the tune was somewhat changed. The advanced guards of the Army were then actually at Hyde Park Corner, and the City and the two Houses were in terror. Saturday, Dec. 2, consummated the business. Despite an order bidding him back, Fairfax was then in Whitehall, his head-quarters close to the two Houses, and his regiments of horse and foot distributed round about. London and Westminster were, in fact, once more in the Army's possession. Nevertheless both Houses met that day in due form, and there was a violent debate in the Commons over the Treaty as affected by the new turn of affairs. The debate broke off late in the afternoon, when it was adjourned till Monday by a majority of 132 to 102. The news of the abduction of the King to Hurst Castle had not yet reached London, and Cromwell was still believed to be at Pontefract.'

1 Commons and Lords Journals of Nov. 27 to Dec. 2, 1648; Parl. Hist. III. 1134 -1146; Rushworth, VII. 1349-50.

CHAPTER II.

TROUBLES IN THE BARBICAN HOUSEHOLD: CHRISTOPHER MILTON'S
COMPOSITION SUIT: MR. POWELL'S COMPOSITION SUIT: DEATH OF
MR. POWELL: HIS WILL: DEATH OF MILTON'S FATHER-SONNET
XIV. AND ODE TO JOHN ROUS-ITALIAN REMINISCENCES: LOST
LETTERS FROM CARLO DATI OF FLORENCE: MILTON'S REPLY TO
THE LAST OF THEM-PEDAGOGY IN THE BARBICAN: LIST OF
MILTON'S KNOWN PUPILS: LADY RANELAGH-EDUCATIONAL RE-
FORM STILL A QUESTION: HARTLIB AGAIN: THE INVISIBLE COL-
LEGE: YOUNG ROBERT BOYLE AND WILLIAM PETTY-REMOVAL
FROM BARBICAN TO HIGH HOLBORN-MEDITATIONS AND OCCUPA-
TIONS IN THE HOUSE IN HIGH HOLBORN: MILTON'S SYMPATHIES
WITH THE ARMY CHIEFS AND THE EXPECTANT REPUBLICANS-
STILL UNDER THE BAN OF THE PRESBYTERIANS: TESTIMONY OF
THE LONDON MINISTERS AGAINST HERESIES AND BLASPHEMIES :
MILTON IN THE BLACK LIST-ANOTHER LETTER FROM CARLO DATI:
TRANSLATION OF NINE PSALMS FROM THE
THROUGH THE SECOND CIVIL WAR: HIS PERSONAL INTEREST IN

HEBREW-MILTON

IT, AND DELIGHT IN THE ARMY'S TRIUMPH : HIS SONNET TO FAIRFAX-BIRTH OF MILTON'S SECOND CHILD: ANOTHER LETTER FROM CARLO DATI.

THE two years and four months of English History traversed in the last chapter were of momentous interest to Milton at the time, were preparing an official career of eleven years for him at the very centre of affairs, and were to furnish him with matter for comment, and indeed with risk and responsibility, to the end of his days. While they were actually passing, however, his life was rather private in its tenor, and we have to seek him not so much in public manifestations as in his household and among his books.

TROUBLES IN THE BARBICAN HOUSEHOLD: CHRISTOPHER MILTON'S COMPOSITION SUIT: MR. POWELL'S COMPOSITION SUIT: DEATH OF MR. POWELL: HIS WILL: DEATH OF MILTON'S FATHER.

We left the household in Barbican a rather overcrowded one, consisting not merely of Milton, his wife, their newlyborn little girl, his father, and his two nephews, but also of his Royalist father-in-law Mr. Powell, with Mrs. Powell, and several of their children, driven to London by the wreck of the family fortunes at Oxford. For some months, we now find, the state of poor Mr. Powell's affairs continued to be a matter of anxiety to all concerned.

On the 6th of August, 1646, or as soon as possible after Mr. Powell's arrival in London, he had applied, as we saw, to the Committee at Goldsmiths' Hall for liberty to compound for that portion of his sequestered Oxfordshire estates which was yet recoverable. Milton's younger brother, Christopher, we saw, was at the same time engaged in a similar troublesome business. He too was suing out pardon for his delinquency on condition of the customary fine on his property; and, according to his own representation to the Goldsmiths' Hall Committee, the sole property he had consisted of a single house in the city of London, worth 401. a year.

The Goldsmiths' Hall Committee being then overburdened with similar applications of Delinquents from all parts of England, the cases of Mr. Powell and Christopher Milton had waited their turn.

The case of Christopher Milton came on first. His delinquency had been very grave. He had actually served as one of the King's Commissioners for sequestrating the estates of Parliamentarians in three English counties. There seems, therefore, to have been a disposition at head-quarters to be severe with him. On the 24th of September the Committee at Goldsmiths' Hall did fix his fine for his London property at 801. (i.e. a tenth of its whole value calculated at twenty years' purchase), receiving the first moiety of 401. down, and