Then came the plague, which broke out in London with such violence as to terrify even the most worldly and force upon them the thought of death. Persons seemingly in perfect health would suddenly fall dead in the streets, as many as ten thousand deaths occurring in a single day. All who were able to escape fled from the city, while those who could not get away shut themselves up in their houses, scarcely venturing forth to obtain even the necessities of life. The terrible scenes which met the eye at every turn quickly banished William’s newly acquired worldliness and turned his thoughts once more to serious things. Religious questions absorbed his whole mind and became of far greater importance to him than those of law, with which he should have been occupying himself. Sir William observed this new change with alarm and displeasure on his return with the fleet, and even more so when his services were rewarded by the King not only by large additions to his Irish estates, but also by promises of still higher preferment in the future. Of what use would these honors be if the son who was to inherit them insisted on embracing a vocation that utterly unfitted him for such a position? Again he cast about for a remedy that should prove as effectual as the sojourn in France had been, and this time he sent his son to the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whose court, though a gay and brilliant one, was not so profligate as those at Paris and London. The admiral had overlooked one fact, however, in his choice of residence for his son; namely, that there were many Quakers in Ireland. The letters which he carried procured young Penn an instant welcome to court circles in Dublin, where his attractive person and his cleverness soon made him popular. Again he found himself plunged into a whirl of gayety and pleasure, to which he abandoned himself the more readily as it involved no especial reproach of conscience. Soon after his arrival he volunteered to join an expedition commanded by the Duke’s son, Lord Arran, to reduce some mutinous troops to obedience, and bore himself with so much coolness and courage that the viceroy wrote to Sir William expressing his satisfaction with young Penn’s conduct and proposing that he should embrace a military career, for which he seemed so well adapted. Greatly to William’s disappointment, however, the admiral refused his consent, having other plans for the future. There was also work for him now wherein he could utilize his knowledge of law, some question having arisen as to the title of the large estates recently granted the admiral by Charles the Second. The matter having to be settled by law, William was intrusted by his father with the trial of the case, which he succeeded in winning.