Strange as it may seem, there must have been a real intimacy between the straightforward and outspoken Penn and the crafty and double-dealing king. Gerard Croese, who wrote the history of the early Quakers, dwelt upon this strange friendship. "William Penn," he quaintly says, "was greatly in favor with the King--the Quaker's sole patron at court--on whom the hateful eyes of his enemies were intent. The king loved him as a singular and entire friend, and imparted to him many of his secrets and counsels. He often honored him with his company in private, discoursing with him of various affairs, and that, not for one, but many hours together, and delaying to hear the best of his peers who at the same time were waiting for an audience. One of these being envious, and impatient of delay, and taking it as an affront to see the other more regarded than himself, adventured to take the freedom to tell his majesty, that when he met with Penn he thought little of his nobility. The King made no other reply than that Penn always talked ingenuously, and he heard him willingly." Then the young Duke of Monmouth raised a rebellion and tried to seize the throne. Many Protestants joined his cause, but he was defeated, and there followed the slaughter of all who had sided with Monmouth, or who were even suspected of siding with him. The cruel Judge Jeffreys went through the country leaving a trail of gibbeted heads and ruined homes behind him, thereby bringing the Catholic king and his court in more disfavor than ever with the great Protestant majority of the people. But Penn did not desert the king, although he must have hated the bloodshed that James tolerated in his officers. "The King," said he, "was much to be pitied, for he was hurried into all this effusion of blood by Jeffreys' impetuous and cruel temper." He advised the Quakers to keep quiet and refrain from mixing in public affairs. And meantime he himself used all his influence to protect those who fell under suspicion of disloyalty to the Crown. The Quakers were glad enough to have a friend at court, and there was no doubt but that Penn was a very influential man. In those days there were many men with some standing at court who were known as "pardon-brokers"; men whose business it was to obtain pardons for persons accused of crimes, usually exacting payment of all the accused person's wealth in return. Penn used his influence to obtain pardons only because of his belief in the innocence of the man or woman under accusation, and this honesty of his, in an age when treachery and deceit were the usual standards, made him more than ever a marked and notable man.