“His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart;
So didst thou travel on life’s common way
In cheerful godliness.”
Look at his noble face, which reflects in its every expression the splendid mind with which he is gifted and the noble thoughts which flit through it. No man ever served the Muses with such exquisite devotion. He comes to his desk as a knight to his vigil, believing that no man can worthily write of great things unless his life is worthily lived. He loves virtue with all the passion of his nature——
“She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime.”
And now he is engaged on a task which enlists all his sympathy, and sends a throb of righteous indignation through his veins.
He is Latin Secretary to the Council, and it is his task to Latinize all communications to foreign states. Cromwell has heard that in the valleys of Piedmont the Waldenses, a body of dogged Puritans, are being persecuted by the Duke of Savoy, who is harrying them with savage cruelty, and has already slain thousands of them. Cromwell is greatly moved by the news, and his anger breaks forth in a torrent of inconsequent words. The upshot, however, is clear to Milton: France shall receive those attentions which have made the English fleet the terror of the Mediterranean, unless an immediate end is put to the persecution. Milton has already written the most sublime of all his sonnets on this subject:——
“Avenge, O Lord! Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;