The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-27
REMARKABLE ESCAPES OF EMF
NENT MEN.

some years ago q young man holding
a subordinate position in the East India
Company's service, twice attempted to
deprive himself of life by swapping q
loaded pistol at his head. Each time
the pistol missed fire. A friend entering
his room shortly afterward he requested
him to fire 1t out of the window; 1t then
went off without any difficulty. Salts
fled thus that the wepon had been duly
primed and loaded, the young mai
sprang up, exclaiming, IT must be re.
served for something great and from
that moment gave upthe idea OF suicide,
which for some time had been upper
most in his thoughts. That young man
afterward became Lord Give.
Two brothers were on one occasion
walking together when q violent storm
of thunder and lightning overlook them.
One Was struck dead on the SPOT. the
other was spared, else would the name
of the great reformer, Martin Luther,
have been unknown to mankind.
The holy st. Augustine having to
preach in q distant town, took with him
a guide, who by some ~unaccountable
means mintOok the usual road and fell
into a by-path. He afterwards discov.
cred that his enemies, having heard of
his movements, had placed themselves
in the proper road with the design of
numbering him.
Bacon, the sculptor, when a tender
boy of five years, fell into the pit of a
soap-boiler, and must have persisted, had
not a workman just entering the yard,
observed the top of his head, and deliv.
cred him.
When Oliver Cromwell was an infant,
a monkey snatched him from his cradle,
Ioanod vr,tfb biVSp tHrO,H ~x-.-A II
dow, and ran along the leads of the
house. The utmost alarm was excited
among the inmates, and various were
the devices used to rescue the child from
the guardianship of his newly found
protector. All were u~navailfng; his
would-be C lost courage, and were
In despair of ever seeing the baby alive
again, when the monkey quietly re-
traced his steps and deposited its bur-
then safely on the bed. On a subsequent
occasion the waters had well nigh
quenched his unsuitable ambition. lie
fell into asdeep pond, from drowning il
which q clergyman named Johnson was
the sole instrument of his rescue.
At the siege of Leister a young soldier
about seventeen years of aye, was drawn
out for sentry duty. One of his comrades
was very anxious to take his place. No
objection was made, and this man went.
He was shot dead while on guard. The
young man first drawn afterward be.
came the author of the "Pilgrim's Pro-
gress.n a
Doddridge, when born, was so weakly
an infant 1t was believed to be dead. <
nurse standing by fancied she saw some
signs ofvitality. Thus the feebled spark
of life was saved from being extiuguish.
ed, and an eminent author and consist.
ent Christian preserved to the world.
John Wesley, when a chile, was only
just preserved from fire. Almost the
moment after he was rescued, the roof of
the house, where he had been, fell in.
or Philip Henry, a similar instance is
recorded. =
William Lloyd Garrison fell into a
tanners vat at a very early age. and
would have been drowned but for Mr.
Liant, of Boston, who pulled him out in
time to save his life-but not until he
had been pretty we'll tanned and this
accident very possibly gave coloring 10
his subsequent course oflife.
Timon experienced several narrow es-
capes from drowning in youth-which
gives rise to a suspicion that he was not
born Tor such q fate-but reserved for
something higher.
John Knox, the renowned Scottish re-
former, was always wont to sit at the
head Of the table with his back to the
window. On one particular evening,
without, however, being able to account
for it, he would neither himself sit in
the chair nor permit any M else to oc-
cupy his place. That very night a bull
let was shot in at the window purposely
to kill him; it grazed the chair in which
he sat, and made a hole In the foot of a
candlestick on the table.
Many years have now elapsed since
three subalterns might have been seen
struggling In the water of st. Helena;
one Of them, peculiarly helpless, was