what the paper was about which Penn had dropped that morning in Lord Arlington's room. A paper! Penn replied that he had dropped no paper in the Secretary's room.

'Come, come' urged the great man, looking bigger and blacker; 'a paper had been picked up; it lay on the floor where he had stood; a paper full of rant and treason against his Majesty. The culprit would do well to own his crime and say who his confederates were. King Charles, their gracious sovereign, could be mild with young and penitent offenders; but with old and hardened sinners he was justly stern.'

Penn answered that he had no paper, no confederates, no designs. He had not dropped a paper in Lord Arlington's room, and he had nothing that concerned his Majesty to confess. The book which he had written was directed against Vincent's argument, not against his Majesty's throne and life. He avowed the writing of that book, and told the Secretary he was ready to answer for it in the courts of law.

Though baffled in his aim Lord Arlington affected to be pleased with Penn's disclaimer of the paper; and on leaving Penn at the Lieutenant's lodgings, he assured him he would go and see the King at once, when he would make the best of his case with Charles, and held out hopes that in a few hours Penn would be free to join his family at the Navy Gardens.

Driving back to Whitehall Palace, Arlington sought an interview with Charles. Harry Bennet, first and only Baron Arlington, was a man after the King's own heart-a mimic and buffoon, who heightened the effect of every wink and parody in private, by the affectation of a grave and sombre carriage in the park and street. The man had

lived in Spain and caught the manner of a grandee of that formal and punctilious country; but in Charles's cabinet, among the odalisques and spaniels, he could throw his mask aside, and strut and bray, and whine and cackle, till the painted women and their royal patron shouted with delight. Young Penn-so grave of face, so plain of speech -was just the subject for a low comedian to display in such a place,-a boy who told the truth, who thee-ed and thou-ed, who wore his hat, who quoted Saxon laws, and wanted to be put in jail.

King Charles at all times ready to protect the favourites who amused his idle moments, took upon himself the charge of Penn's arrest as well as Derby's. But on what pretence could Penn's commitment to the Tower be justified? When all was said, the offence of printing an unlicensed pamphlet was a misdemeanour only, and the manner of proceeding with offenders was prescribed by law. The copies must be seized as evidence against the printer and his employer. The printer and his employer must be taken to a justice of the peace, who, having heard the charge, and seen the proofs, could send the case for trial in the public courts. Not one of these legal forms had been observed with Penn. Charles, lolling in his cabinet, was puzzled how to act, until a lucky thought occurred to him. Vincent was known to have called 'The Sandy Foundation Shaken' a blasphemous pamphlet; meaning that Penn's denial of the 'three subsistences' was blasphemy against the Son and Holy Spirit. Charles and Arlington caught the word. By virtue of his royal office, Charles was a defender of the faith, and if a book were blasphemous the writer of it might be held his prisoner. not as chief of the State but as head of the Church. Yes; here was light for them

-so far. A young man, who was talked about as having 'turned ranter' or some such 'dreadful thing,' might be restrained for blasphemy without exciting great remark. But there was still for Arlington the slip in point of form. No Secretary of State had power to send a prisoner to the Tower; the lawful right was in the Council; in the King, supported and advised by men appointed to their office and responsible to the law. Unless His Majesty would help him here, poor Arlington was but too well aware how much he lay exposed to future suits and fines. His Majesty would help him. Sending for the Council Register, Charles held a mock meeting of the Council-he and Arlington-and put the following entry on the book, as though the act had been done in regular course :—

At the Court at Whitehall, the 16th of December, 1668.

Present the King's Most Excellent Majesty, &c.

The Right Hon. the Lord Arlington, His Majesty's principal Secretary of State, having this day represented to His Majesty in Council that William Penn, author of the blasphemous book lately printed, intituled, "The Sandy Foundation Shaken,' etc., had rendered himself unto His Lordship, and that thereupon, in order to His Majesty's service, he caused him to be committed to the Tower of London, and likewise that he had caused John Derby, who printed the said book, to be sent prisoner to the Gate House; which His Majesty, well approving of, did order that the said Lord Arlington be and he is hereby authorized and desired to give directions for the continuing the said William Penn and John Derby close

prisoners in the respective places aforesaid until further order.

This fraudulent entry in the Council book is to be noted for two singular facts, besides the fraud. The 'Sandy Foundation Shaken' is described in it as a 'blasphemous book;' not as a book alleged to be blasphemous by an opponent; but as a book which the King and lords are satisfied is blasphemous. It is not likely that either Charles or Arlington had read the book; for it was hardly out of press, and was a grave and pious work. Lord Arlington had not been bound to read it in his office, for the seizure had been caused by want of license on the title, not by matter of offence supposed to lie in the book itself. But proof was nothing to a man like Charles, who made himself accuser where he ought to have been the final judge. His next point was to make the imprisonment close. A close prisoner in the Tower was in a harder case than ordinary prisoners. He was locked up in his cell with a keeper. If a servant waited on him, that servant was kept a prisoner too. He was but scantily supplied with fire. At fixed and early hours, his lights were all put out. He could not see a friend except by special license from the Council. He was not allowed to send for either doctor, parson, or attorney. He was not permitted to write a letter, to receive a present, to discharge a debt. He was obliged to eat the prison fare. All these restraints, by which the blackest traitors were not always bound, were to be put on Penn in order to induce unthinking people to believe that he was guilty of some serious crime.

But this mock council and this fraudulent entry, though they covered Arlington, would not

cover Robinson. An act of commitment, to be legal, must be signed by several members of the Council on his Majesty's behalf. At any moment Robinson might be ordered by a judge to produce his prisoner, and he begged Lord Arlington to let him have a regular warrant, duly signed, which he could plead in bar of any action brought against him. Then, a meeting of the Council-of some pliant members of the Council-was convened in haste, on Friday, when seven members met the King, and put their signatures to the following warrant :—

At the Court at Whitehall, the 18th of December, 1668.

Present: The King's Most Excellent Majesty, &c.

Whereas William Penn hath by His Majesty's particular command, signified by the Lord Arlington, principal Secretary of State, been committed prisoner to your custody for composing and causing to be printed a blasphemous treatise, intituled, 'The Sandy Foundation Shaken,' etc., and the said Lord Arlington having this day in Council acquainted His Majesty therewith, His Majesty was pleased to approve well of what by the diligence of the said Lord Arlington had been done therein, and accordingly to order that the said William Penn should remain and continue prisoner in your custody. These are therefore in His Majesty's name to charge and require you to keep and detain close prisoner within that His Majesty's Tower of London the person of the said William Penn, until His Majesty's pleasure shall be further signified. Dated the 18th day of December, 1668.