“I... Steer Right Onward” 1654–1658over Danzig, then under siege by Sweden and defended by Dutch and Danish
fleets. To the States General (August 21) Cromwell warns of the great danger to the
reformed churches if the United Provinces fall out with Sweden and the Swedish
king, “whom God, as we trust, has raised up to be a very brave champion of the
orthodox religion,” and who is waging a savage war against the “most potent”
enemies of the reformed religion.^61 The briefer letter to Charles X rejoices in his
victories against the papists but warns him against conflicts with the Dutch and the
Danes in the Baltic. The eloquent phrases sound Miltonic:
Enough and more than enough are the enemies of Protestants everywhere; never
have they seemed inflamed with more consuming hate or to have conspired our ruin
so utterly. Witness the Alpine valleys flowing not long ago with the blood and car-
nage of wretches; witness Austria recently shaken with the edicts and proscriptions of
its emperor; witness Switzerland.... If there should be added to all these evils the
dissension of Protestant brethren among themselves... the reformed religion itself
must be placed in jeopardy and must face the most serious crisis. On the contrary, if all
who call themselves Protestants would in fraternal harmony cherish perpetual peace
among themselves... there would be no reason at all for us to fear what the cunning
and the might of the enemy could do to trouble us.^62Milton was also involved with the protracted negotiations leading to a military
and economic agreement with Sweden that was intended to supplement the 1654
treaty. One sticking point was Charles’s desire for a military alliance to aid him in
the Baltic and Cromwell’s desire that any military action be directed against the
Catholic Habsburgs and Spain. Another was England’s effort to interdict the sale of
Swedish masts, hemp, and other naval commodities to Spain. The Swedish ambas-
sador, Christiern Bonde, took umbrage at the slow pace of negotiations, which on
one occasion he laid to Milton’s charge. Bonde complained that on April 21 he
delivered to the English commissioners a draft of the treaty provisions he desired
and had to wait two weeks for an answer: “it is a scandal that now that Mr Meadowe
has gone to Portugal they have no one who can write a decent line of Latin, but the
blind Miltonius must translate anything they want done from English to Latin, and
one can easily imagine how it goes.”^63 Whitelocke’s account of the incident (dated
May 6, 1656) takes note of Bonde’s complaint, which extended to the possible
security leaks from the amanuensis, and recorded the commissioners’ response: “the
Employment of Mr. Milton was excused to him, because several other servants of
the council fit for that employment, were then absent.”^64 This suggests that the
government was not above using Milton’s blindness as an excuse for their own
delaying purposes. Obviously there were other competent Latinists around and
Milton probably could have worked more quickly had that been desired. The epi-
sode suggests, however, that Milton was sometimes hard pressed to fulfill his duties
during the months he was alone in the Latin secretary’s role. If he heard about
Bonde’s slighting comment, it surely rankled.