The travellers having entered Lorraine, stopped at Delme near Nancy, where they halted and walked about the town. During this time one of their servants, who knew where the money had been hidden, took advantage of their absence, placed the valise on the best of the two horses, and rode away as fast as he could. When Calvin and Du Tillet returned, they discovered the robbery. They wished to pursue the thief, but could not catch him.[197] The two friends were greatly embarrassed, when the other servant approached and offered them ten crowns which he had with him. They accepted his offer and were able to reach Strasburg.
If Calvin had remained in his own country, he would never have been able to fulfil the career to which he was called; he had no other prospect but the stake. And yet, he will indeed be her reformer.... True, he quitted her, but a divine hand fixed him as near as possible to that land of his affections and of his sorrows. From the picturesque valley, whence the Rhone continually pours its waves into France, God was about to scatter by Calvin's means, throughout all the provinces of that great kingdom, the living waters of the Gospel of Christ.
[159] Calvin contre les Libertins. Opusc. franç. p. 652; Opusc. lat. p. 510.
[160] Opusc. franç. p. 664; Opusc. lat. p. 520.
[161] Ibid. p. 666; ibid. p. 523. 'Unicum esse spiritum Dei qui sit et vivat in omnibus creaturis.'
[162] 'Nullam homini voluntatem tribuunt, ac si esset lapis.'—Opusc. lat. p. 669.
[163] Luth. Ep. iii. p. 62.
[164] 'Cest ty, c'est my, c'est Dieu; car ce que ty ou my faisons, c'est Dieu qui le fait.'
[165] Opusc. franç. p. 662; Opusc. lat. p. 518.
[166] Calvin, Matth. xxii. 29.