When this rumor reached the admiral, who feared nothing so much as ridicule, he promptly ordered his son to join him in London. Finding him still in the dress of a gentleman with sword and plume, he felt somewhat reassured and began to hope that after all he might have been misinformed, but the next day, when he took William to task for keeping his hat on in his presence, the youth frankly confessed that he had become a Quaker. Threats and arguments proving alike useless, the admiral then gave him an hour’s time to consider whether he would not at least remove his hat before the King and the Duke of York, that his future prospects and position at court might not be ruined. But William’s resolution had been fully matured during his imprisonment at Cork, and his conversion was a serious matter of conscience. He was forced to admit to himself therefore that such a concession would be a violation of his principles, and announced at the end of the time that it would be impossible for him to comply with his father’s wishes. At this the admiral’s hitherto restrained anger burst all bounds. Infuriated because all his plans and ambitions for the future were baffled by what seemed to him a mere notion, he heaped abuse and reproaches on his son and finally ordered him from the house with threats of disinheritance. This was a severe test of Penn’s religious convictions. Not only was he passionately devoted to his mother, on whose sympathy and support he could always count, but he also had the deepest respect and regard for his father, in spite of their widely different views, but his conscience demanded the sacrifice and he made it, leaving his home and all his former associations. Now that the die was cast he laid aside his worldly dress and openly professed himself as belonging to the Friends, as they were called, who welcomed him with open arms. It would have fared ill with him, however, accustomed as he was to a life of affluence and ease, had it not been for his mother, who provided him with money from time to time as she found an opportunity.