England would
have been concerned in such a business. Go home. Get you gone. I am
King. I will be obeyed. Go to your chapel this instant; and admit the
Bishop of Oxford. Let those who refuse look to it. They shall feel
the whole weight of my hand. They shall know what it is to incur the
displeasure of their Sovereign." The Fellows, still kneeling before him,
again offered him their petition. He angrily flung it down. "Get you
gone, I tell you. I will receive nothing from you till you have admitted
the Bishop."

They retired and instantly assembled in their chapel. The question was
propounded whether they would comply with His Majesty's command. Smith
was absent. Charnock alone answered in the affirmative. The other
Fellows who were at the meeting declared that in all things lawful
they were ready to obey the King, but that they would not violate their
statutes and their oaths.

The King, greatly incensed and mortified by his defeat, quitted Oxford
and rejoined the Queen at Bath. His obstinacy and violence had brought
him into an embarrassing position. He had trusted too much to the effect
of his frowns and angry tones, and had rashly staked, not merely the
credit of his administration, but his personal dignity, on the issue of
the contest. Could he yield to subjects whom he had menaced with raised
voice and furious gestures? Yet could he venture to eject in one day
a crowd of respectable clergymen from their homes, because they had
discharged what the whole nation regarded as a sacred duty? Perhaps
there might be an escape from this dilemma. Perhaps the college might
still be terrified, caressed, or bribed into submission. The agency
of Penn was employed. He had too much good feeling to approve of the
violent and unjust proceedings of the government, and even ventured to
express part of what he thought. James was, as usual, obstinate in the
wrong. The courtly Quaker, therefore, did his best to seduce the college
from the path of right. He first tried intimidation. Ruin, he said,
impended over the society. The King was highly incensed. The case might
be a hard one. Most people thought it so. But every child knew that His
Majesty loved to have his own way and could not bear to be thwarted.
Penn, therefore, exhorted the Fellows not to rely on the goodness of
their cause, but to submit, or at least to temporise. Such counsel came
strangely from one who had himself been expelled from the University
for raising a riot abou