“Monday, June 20--About nine, I set out for Horsley, with Mr. Hopper and Mr. Smith. I took Mrs. Smith, and her two little girls, in the chaise with me. About two miles from the town, just on the brow of the hill, on a sudden both the horses set out, without any visible cause, and flew down the hill, like an arrow. In a minute, John fell off the coach box. The horses then went on full speed, sometimes to the edge of the ditch on the right, sometimes on the left. A cart came up against them; they avoided it as exactly as if the man had been on the box. A narrow bridge was at the foot of the hill. They went directly over the middle of it. They ran up the next hill with the same speed; many persons meeting us, but getting out of the way. Near the top of the hill was a gate, which led into a farmer’s yard. It stood open. They turned short, and run through it, without touching the gate on one side, or the post on the other. I thought, ‘The gate which is on the other side of the yard, and is shut, will stop them’; but they rushed through it, as if it had been a cobweb, and galloped on through the cornfield. The little girls cried out, ‘Grandpapa, save us!’ I told them, ‘Nothing will hurt you: do not be afraid’; feeling no more fear or care than if I had been sitting in my study. The horses ran on, till they came to the edge of a steep precipice. Just then Mr. Smith, who could not overtake us before, galloped in between. They stopped in a moment. Had they gone on ever so little, he and we must have gone down together!” This was one of the narrowest escapes from death that Wesley ever had; and his remarks upon it are worth adding. “I am persuaded, that both evil and good angels had a large share in this transaction: how large we do not know now; but we shall know hereafter. I think some of the most remarkable circumstances were: (1) Both the horses, which were tame and quiet as could be, starting out in a moment, just at the top of the hill, and running down full speed. (2) The coachman’s being thrown on his head with such violence, and yet not hurt at all. (3) The chaise running again and again to the edge of each ditch, and yet not into it. (4) The avoiding the cart. (5) The keeping just the middle of the bridge. (6) The turning short through the first gate, in a manner that no coachman in England could have turned them, when in full gallop. (7) The going through the second gate as if it had been but smoke, without slackening their pace at all. This would have been impossible, had not the end of the chariot pole struck exactly on the centre of the gate; whence the whole, by the sudden impetuous shock, was broke into small pieces. Lastly, that Mr. Smith struck in just then: in a minute more we had been down the precipice. ‘Let those give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed, and delivered from the hand of the enemy!’”