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CHAPTER III.

A. 1666-1667-is sent to Ireland-attends the court of the Duke of Ormond--meets again with Thomas Loe impression again made by the sermon of the latteris put into gaol for being at a Quakers' meetingwrites to Lord Orrery-is discharged from prison—is reported to be a Quaker-ordered home on that account by his father-interesting interview between them conditions offered him by his father—is again turned out of doors!

Ìr is not probable, where men have pursued

a path in conformity with their belief of divine truths, that any ordinary measures taken to divert them from it will be successful. The fire kindled in their minds may indeed be smothered for a time, but it will: eventually break forth. Such was the state of the mind of William Fenn at this period. He had come from the continent with an air of gaiety and the show of polite manners, which the Admiral had mistaken for a great change in his mind. But now, in 1666, all volatile appearances had died away. The grave and sedate habits of his countrymen, the religious controversies then afloat, these and other circumstances of a similar tendency

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dency had caused the spark which had ap peared in him to revive in its wonted strength. He became again a serious person. He mixed again only with grave and religious people. His father, when he returned from sea, could not but notice this change. It was the more visible on account of the length of his absence. He saw it with all his former feelings; with the same fear for the consequences, and the same determination to oppose it. Not easily to be vanquished, he determined a second time to endeavour to break up his son's connections; and to effect this, he sent him to Ireland.

One reason which induced him to make choice of Ireland for this purpose, was his acquaintance with the Duke of Ormond, (who was then lord lieutenant of that country,) as well as with several others who attended his court. The Duke himself was a man of a graceful appearance, lively wit, and cheerful temper; and his court had the reputation of great gaiety and splendour. The Admiral conceived, therefore, if his son were properly introduced among his friends there, that he might even yet receive a new bias, and acquire a new taste.

But

But this scheme of the Admiral did not answer. Nothing which William saw there could shake his religious notions, or his determination to a serious life. Every thing, on the other hand, which he saw, tended to confirm them. He considered the court, with its pomp and vanity, its parade and ceremonies, as a direct nursery for vice; and as to its routine of pleasures, it became to him only a routine of disgust.

Thus disappointed again in his expecta tions, but not yet overcome, the Admiral had recourse to another expedient, an expedient, indeed, which he had always contemplated in case of the failure of the other. He had large estates in Ireland, one of which, comprehending Shannigary Castle, lay in the barony of Imokelly, and the others in the baronies of Ibaune and Barryroe, all of them in the county of Cork. He determined therefore to give his son the sole management of these, knowing at least, while he resided upon them, that he would be far from his English connections, and at any rate. that he would have ample employment for his time. William received his new commission. He was happy in the execution

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of it. He performed it also, after a trial of many months, to the entire satisfaction and even joy of his father; and he was going on in the yet diligent performance of it, when, alas! this his very occupation (so often do the efforts made to prevent an apprehended evil become the means of introducing it) brought him eventually into the situation which his father of all others deprecated! Being accidentally on business at Cork, he heard that Thomas Loe (the layman of Oxford, mentioned in the preceding chapter to have been the person who first confirmed his early religious impressions,) was to preach at a meeting of the Quakers in that city. It was impossible that he could return to his farm without seeing the man whom he considered as his greatest human benefactor, and still more without hearing his discourse. Accordingly he attended. The preacher at length rose. He began with the following text: "There is a faith which overcomes the world, and there is a faith which is overcome by the world." On this subject he enlarged, and this in so impressive a manner that William was quite overcome. The words indeed of the text were so adapted

to his situation, that he could hardly help considering them as peculiarly addressed to himself; for, from the time of his leaving Chigwell school to the present, there had been a constant struggle between himself and the world, and this entirely on account of his faith. Such a discourse, if ably handled, must have come home to him in every sentence. He must have seen his own arduous conflict personified as it were and pourtrayed before him. He must have seen the precipice on which he had stood, with the gulf terrible below. He must have seen some angel in the picture cheering him for the efforts he had already made, and some other holding up to his view at a distance a wreath of never-fading glory, which he might gain by perseverance for the time to come. But whatever were the topics of this discourse, it is certain that William was so impressed by it, that though he had as yet not discovered a partiality for any particular sect, he favoured the Quakers as a religious body from that day.

The result of this preference was, that he began to attend their religious meetings. But, alas! he soon learnt, from the ignorant prejudices

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