with his sword, he was sent to the Academy at
Angiers for a year, and at the conclusion of his military studies his
father would have bought him a commission in a regiment of musketeers. But
young Misson had been reading books of travel, and begged so earnestly to
be allowed to go to sea that his father got him admitted as a volunteer on
the French man-of-war _Victoire_, commanded by Monsieur Fourbin. Joining
his ship at Marseilles, they cruised in the Mediterranean, and the young
volunteer soon showed great keenness in his duties, and lost no
opportunity of learning all he could about navigation and the
construction of ships, even parting with his pocket-money to the boatswain
and the carpenter to receive special instruction from them.

Arriving one day at Naples, Misson obtained permission from the captain to
visit Rome, a visit that eventually changed his whole career.

It happened that while in Rome the young sailor met a priest, a Signor
Caraccioli, a Dominican, who held most unclerical views about the
priesthood; and, indeed, his ideas on life in general were, to say the
least, unorthodox. A great friendship was struck up between these two,
which at length led the priest to throw off his habit and join the crew of
the _Victoire_. Two days out from port they met and fought a desperate
hand-to-hand engagement with a Sallee pirate, in which the ex-priest and
Misson both distinguished themselves by their bravery. Misson's next
voyage was in a privateer, the _Triumph_, and, meeting one day an English
ship, the _Mayflower_, between Guernsey and Start Point, the merchantman
was defeated after a gallant resistance.

Rejoining the _Victoire_, Misson sailed from Rochelle to the West Indies,
and Caraccioli lost no opportunity of preaching to young Misson the gospel
of atheism and communism, and with such success that the willing convert
soon held views as extreme as those of his teacher. These two apostles now
began to talk to the crew, and their views, particularly on the rights of
private property, were soon held by almost all on board. A fortunate event
happened just then to help the new "cause." Meeting with an English
man-of-war, the _Winchester_, off the island of Martinique, a smart
engagement took place between the two ships, at the very commencement of
which Captain Fourbin and three of the officers on the French ship were
killed. The fight ended by the English ship blowing up, and an era of
speech-making may be s