JAMES THE SECOND.

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flung it down. “Get you gone, I tell you. I will receive c " I A [ j -nothing from you till you have admitted the Bishop.” " 1637 ~'

They retired and instantly assembled in their chapel. Thequestion was propounded whether they would comply withHis Majesty’s command. Smith was absent. Charnock aloneanswered in the affirmative. The other Fellows who were atthe meeting declared that in all things lawful they were readyto obey the King, but that they would not violate their sta-tutes and their oaths.

The King, greatly incensed and mortified by his defeat,quitted Oxford and rejoined the Queen at Bath. His ob-stinacy and violence had brought him into an embarrassingposition. He had trusted too much to the effect of his frownsand angry tones, and had rashly staked, not merely the creditof his administration, but his personal dignity, on the issueof the contest. Could he yield to subjects whom he hadmenaced with raised voice and furious gestures? Yet couldhe venture to eject in one day a crowd of respectable cler-gymen from their homes, because they had discharged whatthe whole nation regarded as a sacred duty? Perhaps theremight be an escape from this dilemma. Perhaps the collegemight still be terrified, caressed, or bribed into submission.

The agency of Penn was employed. He had too much goodfeeling to approve of the violent and unjust proceedings of mediate,the government, and even ventured to express part of whathe thought. James was, as usual, obstinate in the wrong.

The courtly Quaker, therefore, did his best to seduce thecollege from the path of right. He first tried intimidation.

Ruin, he said, impended over the society. The King washighly incensed. The case might be a hard one. Most peoplethought it so. But every child knew that His Majesty lovedto have his own way and could not bear to be thwarted. Penn,therefore, exhorted the Fellows not to rely on the goodnessof their cause, but to submit, or at least to temporise. Suchcounsel came strangely from one who had himself been ex-pelled from the University for raising a riot about the surplice,who had run the risk of being disinherited rather than takeoff his hat to the princes of the blood, and who had been