Moreover,
he received a special pardon, which passed the privy seal in
December, 1660. His escape has been attributed to his friend
Davenant. This loyal soldier had, when taken by Cromwell's
troopers in the civil war, been condemned to speedy death; from
which, by Milton's intercession, he escaped; an act of mercy
Davenant now repaid in kind, by appealing to his friends in
behalf of the republican's safety.
Having secured his freedom, Milton lived in peace and obscurity
in Jewin Street, near Aldersgate Street. During the commonwealth
his first wife, the mother of his three children, had died; on
which he sought solace and companionship in a union with
Catherine Woodcock, who survived her marriage but twelve months;
and being left free once more, he, in the year of grace 1661,
entered into the bonds of holy matrimony for a third time, with
Elizabeth Minshul, a lady of excellent family and shrewish
temper, who rendered his daughters miserable in their father's
lifetime, and defrauded them after his death.
In order to support his family he continued to keep a school, and
likewise employed himself in writing "Paradise Lost" the
composition of which he had begun five years previously. From
his youth upwards he had been ambitious to furnish the world with
some important work; and prevision of resulting fame had given
him strength and fortitude in periods of difficulty and
depression. And now the time had arrived for realization of his
dream, though stricken by blindness, harassed by an unquiet wife,
and threatened by poverty, he laboured sore for fame.
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