"
["To your virtue," writes John Milton to Oliver Cromwell,
"overpowering and resistless, every man gives way, except some
who, without equal qualifications, aspire to equal honours, who
envy the distinctions of merit greater than their own, and who
have yet to learn that, in the coalition of human society,
nothing is more pleasing to God, or more agreeable to reason,
than that the highest mind should have the sovereign power.
Such, sir, are you, by general confession: such are the things
achieved by you, the greatest and most glorious of our
countrymen, the director of our public councils, the leader of
unconquered armies the father of your country; for by that title
does every good man hail you with sincere and voluntary praise."]
On the landing of Charles II. Milton withdrew to the privacy
afforded by a residence in Bartholomew Close, near West
Smithfield. For a time he was apprehensive of punishment. His
pamphlet justifying the late king's execution was, with others of
a like kind, burned by the common hangman; but though parliament
ordered the attorney-general would prosecute the authors of these
works, Milton was neither seized nor brought to trial. Soon
after his arrival, Charles published an act of grace promising
free pardon to those instrumental in overthrowing his father's
government, with the exception of such as had contrived his
death; and inasmuch as Milton had but justified that monstrous
act after it had taken place, he escaped condemnation.
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