again and again, finding at last a bare foothold to which they clung
until a boat fetched them off. The other three could swim but half the
distance to the island, and would have sunk exhausted had not a
passing boat picked them up.

A third time young Fletcher narrowly escaped drowning; on this
occasion it was in the Rhine, where the river is wide and very rapid.
The current swept him far from home, nor could he land for the sharp
rocks on either hand. At length he was flung violently against one of
the piles of a powder mill, lost consciousness, and disappeared,
rising again on the other side of the mill (according to an onlooker,
who took out his watch) _twenty minutes after_ his head had
vanished beneath the water. Surely a guardian angel accompanied Jean
De La Fléchère in all his earthly wanderings!

Although a good rider and practised swimmer, the life of this young
fellow was not by any means wasted in athletics and sport; he studied
hard to prepare himself for the University of Geneva, succeeding most
brilliantly. His extraordinary diligence, no less than his striking
ability, distinguished him among the other students, and he bore off
first prizes with ease, studying early and late that he might acquire
the knowledge he loved. After leaving the University he gave himself
to the acquirement of the German language, and studied Hebrew and
higher mathematics.

All this he did with the idea of becoming a minister of the Gospel,
but the more he thought about the burden which he would assume by so
doing, the less he felt able for his suggested task.

"Go into the army, Fletcher," pleaded some of his friends, and it was