When they reached Berne, Calvin and Farel found their friends in great astonishment at what had taken place. The latter told them that if they were not wanted at Geneva, they should stay at Berne. ‘It would be unpardonable in you,’ they added, ‘to refuse such a call.’[717] To be at Berne with Kunz would have been to abandon their lives to perpetual dissension. They were in haste to be gone. However, they were anxious to express their gratitude to the senate for its conduct towards them, and for that purpose they requested an audience. They were put off to the following day. Remembering all the delays of their recent sojourn, fearing lest they should find themselves beset by claims to which they could not yield, and believing that they had discharged their duty to the council by the request which they had made, they departed for Basel. They did not reach the city without encountering danger on the way. They had to cross a river, believed to be the Aar, and one of them was almost carried away by the swift current, which was swollen by the rain. ‘However,’ wrote Calvin to Viret, ‘the river was more merciful to us than men. The latter had determined, contrary to all right and reason, to compel us to undertake this journey, even were it on foot; but the Lord, in his compassion, preserved us from all evil.’ From the postscript to the same letter it appears that Farel and Calvin crossed the river on horseback. It is not known which of the two narrowly escaped drowning. They arrived at Basel, wet through with the rain, and half dead with fatigue.