Ireland punished and Scotland pacified, he turned his resolute face towards Holland, France and Spain. The Dutchman lay the nearest and had most provoked his wrath; but Holland was preeminently a naval power, and in dealing with her his invincible infantry was of little use. Genius finds its own resources. Resolved to infuse into the navy, as he had already done into the army his own heroic spirit, he employed in his fleet two captains of his camp, Blake and Monk; but these officers, though filled with an energy of spirit like his own, were in a great measure ignorant of the sea. All that courage, activity, and resolution could do he expected them to accomplish; but he saw the necessity of placing by the side of these soldiers a worthy sea-captain, and for this important post he selected the young Admiral of the Straits. The Lord Protector knew that Penn was not attached to his person and government; but he needed his services; and seeing that Penn was a worldly man, and of the earth most earthy, he supposed that pensions and honours could secure his sword, if not his heart. What Cromwell wanted was his sword. Vice-admiral Penn had no objection to fight the countrymen of his wife. He was a sailor, as he used to say, and must be faithful to his flag.

When peace was made with Holland, Cromwell turned to Spain, the old and strenuous enemy of his country. England had a thousand scores to settle with the Spanish court; and two great expeditions were prepared in silence in the spring of 1655; one expedition, under Sea-general Blake, to act in Europe, sweep the Spanish coasts, and fight the Spanish fleets wherever he could find them; while a second expedition was to cross the ocean, search the Spanish main, alarm the coasts and

islands, take possession of San Domingo and St. John's-if possible,—and seize some portion of the continent, such as Cartagena. Cromwell meant to break the power of Spain at sea and in the west. Penn had served as Vice-admiral under Blake, who was a Somersetshire man, and it was perhaps on Blake's suggestion that the second fleet was placed under Penn's command. Before he went on board the young Vice-admiral made his terms with Cromwell. Penn wanted money and he wanted rank. Both were heaped upon him by the Lord Protector. Under the pretence that an estate which Penn had bought near Cork had suffered by the civil war, Cromwell wrote a letter with his own hand to the Irish commissioners, requesting that, in consideration of good and faithful service to the Commonwealth, lands of the full yearly value of three hundred pounds should be surveyed and set apart for Admiral Penn in a convenient place, near a castle or other fortified place, for their better security, and with a good house for him to live in. Cromwell made a special, even a personal, request that his Irish agents would obey this order in such a way as to leave no cause of trouble to either the Admiral or his family; so that they might enjoy the full benefit of this reward in peace while the gallant sailor was engaged in fighting his country's battles in a distant sea. This matter settled, there was nothing but the question of professional rank. Cromwell gave the young Admiral his heart's desire by raising him to the same high rank as Blake. Penn was the only regular sailor who was made a General of the Fleet.

A few days after Penn set sail from Spithead, with these rewards and honours fresh about him, he despatched a secret offer to Prince Charles,

then living at Cologne, to place the whole of his great fleet and army at the prince's disposal if his highness would indicate a port in which they I would be received.

Ever watching for a chance to rise, Sea-general Penn observed when Cromwell's fame was highest, that he stood upon his personal merit, while the nation was rather Royalist than Oliverian. The Lord Protector could not live for ever; after him would come a feeble youth; and then the Commonwealth might fall. In falling it would crush the men who served it; but, for his part, he would not be crushed. Penn cared no more, in truth, for Charles than Oliver. The man for whom he toiled was Admiral Penn; and with a view to the security of Admiral Penn he sent that secret message to Cologne.

Charles thanked the sailor for his message, and he kept his eye on Penn in after days but for the moment he declined to act. Charles had no ports in which he could receive his ships, no funds to pay the seamen, nothing for a fleet to do, unless, like Rupert, he was minded to embark in a piratical cruise. He told the young Sea-general to complete his voyage, and keep his loyalty for a better time. The exiled court were glad to see the Commonwealth at war with Spain for they were eager to make friends in Seville and Madrid. Penn's message, though they had to pass it by, was welcome as a sign of disaffection in the service and supposing that the offer would be made again they moved the King of Spain, as the most powerful enemy of their country, to allow them one of his ports in which to gather up their fleet.

Though Cromwell knew about the offer and the answer to it, he was silent in the Council, and

allowed the fleet from Portsmouth to proceed upon

her voyage.

The expedition failed. Venables who commanded the army (and was also offering to desert his flag), was beaten under the walls of San Domingo, and but for the rapid march and onset of a body of sailors, sent by Penn to his assistance, would have been completely mauled. On falling back from Hispaniola the men were so incensed by the failure that Penn resolved to attack the island of Jamaica, which he conquered and annexed to England at a very slight sacrifice of life.

Sea-general Penn was struck with the resources and the beauties of this island, which in after years he made a subject of his constant talk. A keen examination of the soil and climate, gave him an idea of parting with his Irish lands and laying out his money in the new plantation.

But on Penn's return the Lord Protector was in angry mood affecting to regard the failure of his great design as due to the incompetency of his chiefs. Land-general Venables threw the blame on Sea-general Penn; Sea-general Penn threw the blame on Land-general Venables. For reasons which he kept a secret, Cromwell bade his pliant council strip them of their several offices and dignities, and send them under escort to the Tower.

CHAPTER III.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE (1655-1661.)

Admiral Penn's arrest (September 20, 1655) threw his family affairs into confusion. Margaret was at Wanstead with the younger children, Peg and Richard. William was at school in Chigwell. Uncle George had just arrived with proofs of his great losses by the Inquisition: twelve thousand pounds, besides his house, his business, and his wife. He was expecting Admiral Penn to aid him with the Lord Protector, but instead of finding his famous brother powerful at Whitehall, he found him fretting in a dungeon of the Tower.

Margaret fetched her son William to Wanstead, where he fell into a low and feverish state of mind. One day a sort of vision came to him. Sitting in his room he was surprised by a strange feeling in his heart, and by as strange a radiance in his chamber. What it was that filled his veins and flashed into his eyes he could not tell. He was not yet eleven years old. But as he sat alone, in wretched mood, and in a darkish room, he felt a joyous rush of blood along his veins, and saw his chamber fill with what he called a soft and holy light. It was a vision and a visitation. What it meant he could not say; but that he felt the sudden joy and saw the sacred light, he knew and held so long as he could know and hold by any incident of his early life.

The Admiral made every effort to procure his freedom. He was soon aware that he must pay