Amid these troubles he was only sustained by his faith in God and in the ultimate triumph of right, a faith which was justified after some delay by the restoration to him of his American province, the King, however, reserving the right to defend it until the end of the war, a condition to which Penn, being a Quaker, could conscientiously make no objection. Penn’s greatest anxiety now was to return to America, but he was still detained in England by the condition of his oldest son, who had developed consumption. Shortly before this he had experienced the bitter sorrow of losing Guli, his beloved wife, who for twenty-one years had been the joy of his life. Being unable consequently to leave England he arranged by permission of the government to send a few trustworthy representatives to Pennsylvania to protect his rights while he remained to care for his sick son. After an illness of two years Springett died, February 10, 1696, and the heartbroken father exclaimed: “I have lost in him all that a father can lose in a son.” Penn was now left in sole care of his two remaining children, Letty and William, the latter of whom, resembling his grandfather more than his father in character, needed judicious control. It was this fact chiefly that induced Penn, then nearly fifty years old, to marry again. At the beginning of the year 1696 he was united to Hannah Callowhill of Bristol, a sensible, pious woman, who presented him with six children and outlived him several years. Still Penn found himself unable to go back to Pennsylvania, which he had not seen for thirteen years. For neither his wife nor his daughter Letty, now grown to womanhood, could make up their minds to follow him to America and leave their native land, perhaps forever. As little would his son William listen even to the idea of exchanging the pleasures he enjoyed at home for the monotony of life in Pennsylvania. By the year 1699, however, the English government had received so many complaints of mismanagement on the part of Markham and Penn’s other representatives there that Penn, fearing he might again be in danger of losing his province, decided to make the move to America at any cost, especially as the French war had been brought to a close by the Peace of Ryswick and the usual peaceful conditions might be expected again to exist in Pennsylvania. Under these circumstances his wife and daughter abandoned their opposition to the plan, but young William still refusing to leave England, the family were forced to sail without him. Owing to contrary winds, the passage this time was a very long one, lasting fully three months, a fortunate occurrence as it proved, notwithstanding general complaints, for they thereby escaped an epidemic of some malignant fever which had caused great loss of life in Philadelphia.