JOHN MILTON 59 
be more than she could endure, and in August she 
begged leave to go back to mamma and stay till the 
end of September. The leave was kindly granted, but 
when the time came she did not return. Milton sent 
letter after letter, but there was no answer. After 
some weeks he sent a messenger, who was dismissed 
with rude words. 
Practically this might be interpreted as desertion, 
and in many places to-day would be judged fit: ground 
for divorce. It was not so in England in Milton’s 
time, and it led him to publish pamphlets advocating 
more freedom of divorce than then existed. He made 
no mention of his own trouble, but to us who read the 
knowledge of it lights up what he says. Probably he 
would have made efforts to obtain a divorce, but the 
lapse of two years wrought a change. In June, 1645, 
the battle of Naseby overthrew the king’s party, and 
among other consequences the home of the Powells 
was seized and the family turned out of doors. Milton, 
too, became all at once a man of power, whose favour 
was worth seeking. Some friends conspired together 
and hid poor little Mary in a house in London, whither 
Milton was known to be coming at a certain hour. 
At the sound of his voice in the next room she rushed 
in upon him, threw herself at his feet, and begged to 
be forgiven. It was all her mother’s fault, she said. 
The poet’s great heart asked for no explanation; it 
was enough for her to come back now, the past need 
never be mentioned. To crown his generosity he 
even took that froward mother-in-law into his house, 
and thenceforth had pretty much the whole Powell 
family on his hands for some years. In 1652 Mary 
Milton died, leaving three daughters, who all lived to 
