him of his deanery; and, in the
course of their proceedings, thought it proper to seize upon his
chambers in the college. This was an act which most men would
willingly have referred to the officers to whom the law assigned it;
but Cheynel's fury prompted him to a different conduct. He, and three
more of the visiters, went and demanded admission; which, being
steadily refused them, they obtained by the assistance of a file of
soldiers, who forced the doors with pick-axes. Then entering, they saw
Mrs. Fell in the lodgings, Dr. Fell being in prison at London, and
ordered her to quit them, but found her not more obsequious than her
husband. They repeated their orders with menaces, but were not able to
prevail upon her to remove. They then retired, and left her exposed to
the brutality of the soldiers, whom they commanded to keep possession,
which Mrs. Fell, however, did not leave. About nine days afterwards,
she received another visit of the same kind from the new chancellor,
the earl of Pembroke; who having, like the others, ordered her to
depart without effect, treated her with reproachful language, and, at
last, commanded the soldiers to take her up in her chair, and carry
her out of doors. Her daughters, and some other gentlewomen that were
with her, were afterwards treated in the same manner; one of whom
predicted, without dejection, that she should enter the house again
with less difficulty, at some other time; nor was she mistaken in her
conjecture, for Dr. Fell lived to be restored to his deanery.

At the reception of the chancellor, Cheynel, as the most accomplished
of the visiters, had the province of presenting him with the ensigns
of his office, some of which were counterfeit, and addressing him with
a proper oration. Of this speech, which Wood has preserved, I shall
give some passages, by which a judgment may be made of his oratory.

Of the staves of the beadles he observes, that "some are stained with
double guilt, that some are pale with fear, and that others have been
made use of as crutches, for the support of bad causes and desperate
fortunes;" and he remarks of the book of statutes which he delivers,
that "the ignorant may, perhaps, admire the splendour of the cover,
but the learned know that the real treasure is within." Of these two
sentences it is easily discovered, that the first is forced and
unnatural, and the second trivial and low.

Soon afterwards Mr. Cheynel was admitted to the degree of bac