Brunel, the celebrated engineer, had a curious accident, which might have forfeited his life.  While one day playing with his children and astonishing them by passing a half sovereign through his mouth out at his ear, he unfortunately swallowed the coin, which dropped into his windpipe.  Brunel regarded the mischief caused by the accident as purely mechanical; a foreign body had got into his breathing apparatus, and must be removed, if at all, by some mechanical expedient.  But he was equal to the emergency, and had an apparatus constructed which had the effect of relieving him of the coin.  In after days he used to tell how, when his body was inverted, and he heard the gold piece strike against his upper front teeth, was, perhaps, the most exquisite moment in his whole life, the half sovereign having been in his windpipe for not less than six weeks.

In the year 1784, William Pitt almost fell the victim to the folly of a festive meeting, for he was nearly accidentally shot as a highwayman.  Returning late at night on horseback from Wimbledon to Addiscombe, together with Lord Thurlow, he found the turnpike gate between Tooting and Streatham thrown open.  Both passed through it, regardless of the threats of the turnpike man, who, taking the two for highwaymen, discharged the contents of his blunderbuss at their backs; but, happily, no injury was done, and Pitt had the good fortune to escape from what might have been a very serious, if not fatal, accident.  Foote, too, met with a bad accident on horseback, which, at the time, seemed a lasting obstacle to his career as an actor.  Whilst riding with the Duke of York and some other noblemen, he was thrown from his horse and his leg broken, so that an amputation became necessary.  In consequence of this accident, the Duke of York obtained for him the patent of the Haymarket Theatre for his life; but he continued to perform his former characters with no less agility and spirit than he had done before to the most crowded houses.  Similarly, on one occasion—­a very important one—­Charles James Matthews was nearly prevented making his first appearance on the stage through being thrown from his horse, but, to quote his own words, “the excitement of the evening dominated all other feelings, and I walked for the time as well as ever.”

Some men, again, have owed their success to the accidents of others.  A notable instance was that of Baron Ward, the well-known minister of the Duke of Parma.  After working some time as a stable-boy in Howden, he went to London, where he had the good luck to come to the Duke of Parma’s assistance after a fall from his horse in Rotten Row.  The Duke took him back to Lucca as his groom, and ere long Ward made the ducal stud the envy of Italy.  He soon rose to a higher position, and became the minister and confidential friend of the Duke of Parma, with whom he escaped in the year 1848 to Dresden, and for whom he succeeded in recovering Parma and Placenza.  Indeed, Lord Palmerston once remarked, “Baron Ward was one of the most remarkable men I ever met with.”