“I... Steer Right Onward” 1654–1658The letter to the young king mentions but affects to disbelieve a report that French
troops participated in the massacre, and urges him to a policy of toleration as the
means to civic peace and to strengthen bonds with Protestant nations. The letter to
Mazarin suggests that French toleration of Protestants and aid in the Waldensian
enterprise will advance the negotiations then in hand for a treaty between France
and England. Letters to the Protestant powers – Charles Gustavus of Sweden, the
States General of the United Provinces, the Evangelic Cities of Switzerland, and
Frederick III, King of Denmark – sound common themes in much the same lan-
guage: a review of the barbarities, a report on Cromwell’s efforts, a plea to send
their protests to Savoy and their aid to the Waldensians, and an invitation to join in
some common action if the evil is not redressed. The terms are, however, carefully
tailored to the country addressed.^40 Responding imaginatively to these horrors,
Milton wrote at about this time (May–June, 1655) his great sonnet, “Avenge O
Lord thy slaughter’d Saints,” which conflates details and graphic images from the
reports Milton was hearing and writing about with echoes of biblical prophetic
denunciation.^41 It is discussed on pages 352–4.
Over the next several weeks Milton’s state letters continued to deal with this
issue. In June Cromwell sent £2,000 from his treasury for the refugees’ relief, with
a letter (June 7) asking the Senate of Geneva to manage the distribution “in the
fairest manner to those who are most needy.”^42 The next month Cromwell dis-
patched an envoy to France, Geneva, and Savoy, with a letter (July 31) to Louis
XIV and a brief cover to Mazarin urging the king to redouble his pressure on Savoy
and to protect the refugees and all Protestants in areas under French control (708–
10). Cromwell’s appeals, his threats of invasion, and the Waldensians’ own fierce
counterattacks bore fruit: Mazarin and the Swiss brokered a treaty (August 18) by
which Savoy restored the Waldensians to their liberties and property.
Apparently Milton was not involved in the complex negotiations with Spain
which culminated in a war mostly centered in the New World; this so called “Western
Design” – an expedition to attack Spanish colonies in the West Indies – was spec-
tacularly unsuccessful save for the capture of Jamaica in May, 1655. Nor was Milton
involved in negotiating the alliance with France, formalized in a treaty of peace and
commerce signed on October 24. For whatever reason, he had a few months’
respite from diplomatic duties after the Waldensian crisis and so had little direct
contact with officialdom as Cromwell put in place his scheme for oversight and
control of local government by the soon-to-be-infamous major-generals. Proclaimed
on October 11, the plan called for dividing the counties of England into ten (later
eleven) districts, with the appointment of a major-general to command the militia
in each. Their major function was to suppress any royalist insurrections and to
destroy the culture that nurtured them by prohibiting cock fights, bear baitings,
stage-plays, horse races and the like, by ejecting royalist clergy from churches and
from positions as private tutors or chaplains, and by inflicting harsh sentences of
imprisonment or banishment on known or suspected “malignants.” They were also