60 JOHN MILTON 
grow up. From his return to England until 1646 
Milton had earned money by teaching private pupils; 
in 1646 the death of his father, whom he tenderly loved, 
left him a comfortable fortune. 
In 1649, after the execution of the king, Milton ac- 
cepted the post of Latin Secretary to the government 
of the Commonwealth, and in that position he remained 
until after the death of Cromwell. His duties were 
chiefly translating despatches and writing Latin letters, 
but he was incidentally called upon for much more 
than this. A royalist book appeared, entitled “ Eikon 
Basilike,” or the “ Royal Image”; it purported to have 
been written by the late king, and its object was to 
stimulate the sentiment which had been shocked by 
his execution. In its pages Charles I. appears as a 
saint and martyr, and some of its tearful readers blas- 
phemously likened him to Jesus Christ. The book 
went through forty-seven editions. It was written 
by a Dr. Gauden, whom Charles II. afterward re- 
warded with a bishopric; but everybody, save the half- 
dozen who knew the secret, believed it to be the work 
of Charles I. So thought Milton himself when he 
demolished it in his pamphlet entitled “ Eikonoklastes,” 
or the “ Image Breaker,” the tone of which may be in- 
ferred from a motto on the title-page, “ As a roaring 
lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the 
poor people” (Prov. xxviii. 15). 
Dr. Gauden’s book, being in English, could not 
reach many readers on the Continent, and young 
Charles, who was then living in Holland, intrusted 
the defence of his father to the celebrated Salmasius, 
professor at Leyden, generally regarded as the best 
Latinist in Europe. The book of Salmasius, called 
