On the fifth of November, 1688, he accordingly landed on the English coast with a well-armed force and was hailed with general acclamations, the troops hastily collected by the King for his own defence also deserting to his standard. On hearing this news James fled from London, thinking to escape to France, but being discovered on his way to the coast he was advised by his friends to return to London. At the approach of the Prince of Orange, however, he again fled, and this time succeeded in reaching the shores of France in safety, where he was willingly given shelter by his friend Louis the Fourteenth. On the twenty-second of January, 1689, the throne of England was declared vacant by Parliament and the Prince of Orange proclaimed King, as William the Third, on subscribing to a law regulating the prerogatives of the crown as well as the State and depriving the sovereign of those rights which James had so arbitrarily exercised of abolishing laws on his own absolute authority or of interfering with their execution. Chapter VIII Penn Tried for Treason and Acquitted—Withdrawal of Penn’s Charter—Death of his Wife and Son—Second Marriage—Journey to America—Penn’s Home—Attempts to Correct Abuses—Returns to England and Encounters Fresh Dangers—Penn in the Debtors’ Prison—Ingratitude of the Colonists The flight of King James was the signal for the departure of his friends and favorites also, but Penn refused to leave the country in spite of urgent entreaties from all sides to do so. Calm in the consciousness that he had done nothing which was not for the honor and welfare of England, he persisted in this determination even when the houses of many who were supposed to favor the fugitive King were burned by the populace. When called upon by the council, which had assumed the reins of government, to explain his relations with James, he declared simply that his life had been devoted to the service of his country and the Protestant religion, that the King had been his father’s friend and his own guardian, and that while he had always shown him the respect and obedience due from a subject, he had done nothing and should do nothing inconsistent with his duty to God and his country.