e to
speak French and acquainted with the manners of drawing-rooms.

In two respects, however, his visit to France differed from that of some
of his companions in travel. There were places to which they went
without him; and there were places to which he went without them. He
kept himself from the grosser temptations of the country. "You have been
as bad as other folks," said Sir John Robinson when Penn was on trial
for preaching in the street.

"When," cried Penn, "and where? I charge thee tell the company to my
face."

"Abroad," said Robinson, "and at home, too."

"I make this bold challenge," answered Penn, "to all men, women and
children upon earth, justly to accuse me with ever having seen me drunk,
heard me swear, utter a curse, or speak one obscene word (much less that
I ever made it my practice). I speak this to God's glory, that has ever
preserved me from the power of those pollutions, and that from a child
begot an hatred in me towards them."

He went away alone for some months to the Protestant college of Saumur,
where he devoted himself to a study of that primitive Christianity in
which, as Loe had told him, was to be found the true ideal of the
Christian Church. Here he acquired an acquaintance with the writings of
the early Fathers, from whom he liked to quote.

Thus he returned to England in 1664, attired in French pantaloon
breeches, and with little French affectations in his manner, but without
vices, and with a smattering of patristic learning. He was sent by his
father to study law at Lincoln's Inn. He was to be a courtier, and in
that position it would be both becoming and convenient to have some
knowledge of the law. Thus he settled down among the lawyers, and it
seemed for the moment as if his father had succeeded in his purpose. It
seemed as if the world had effectually obscured the other world.

There are two letters, written about this time from William to his
father, which show a pleasant mixture of piety with a lively interest in
the life about him. He has been at sea for a few days with the admiral,
and returns with dispatches to the king. "I bless God," he writes, "my
heart does not in any way fail, but firmly believe that if God has
called you out to battle, he will cover your head in that smoky day." He
hastened on his errand, he says, to Whitehall, and arrived before the
king was up; but his Majesty, learning that there was news, "earnestly
skipping out of bed, came only in his go