Apennines, and girded it with a rough piece of rope, the first
thing he could find. Thus equipped, he set out a true Knight of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and for the first time in his life began to talk to
the people he met about their souls. That eloquent fiery tongue, that
was destined to make him one of the orators of the age, had not yet
become unloosed, and Francis was simplicity itself. Indeed, he did not
at first attempt to make anything like a speech or sermon. His efforts
were directed towards people whom he was acquainted with, and these he
urged to repent in the name of the Lord. He told his own experience,
and spoke of the shortness of life, of punishment after death, of the
need of heart and life holiness. His halting words struck home, they
pierced like a sword, and many thus convicted, repented and turned
from their evil ways.

[Sidenote: _A Sanctified Leader of Men._]

For over two years now, Francis had lived a solitary, and--humanly
speaking--a lonely life. He had, however, during that time proved the
sufficiency of God. We do not read that he ever longed for a human
friend, one that could understand and sympathise with him, so richly
had God supplied his every need. But the time had come when his
solitude was to end. God was about to raise him up friends. Again he
was to take up his old position as a leader of men, only a sanctified
one.

Bernardo di Quintavelle was a man of birth and position. He was a few
years older than Francis, and as he lived in Assisi, he had full
opportunity of watching all Francis' vagaries, for so his actions
looked to him at first. However, as time passed, and Francis' supposed
mania failed to develop into anything very dangerous, Bernardo puzzled
and wondered. What was it, he asked himself, that had so completely
changed the gay, frivolous, ease-loving Francis Bernardone, into a
poor hard-working beggar? Was he really as good and holy as the common
people began to whisper to themselves? We must bear in mind that vital
religion in Assisi was at its lowest ebb, and the kind that worked
itself out in daily life and action almost unknown.

Pretty soon Bernardo determined to study Francis close to. Again and
again he invited him to his house, and the more he saw of the
gracious, humble, God-fearing, Francis, the more he liked him. One
night he asked him to stay till the next day, and Francis consenting,
he had a bed made up for him in his own room. They retired. In a short
tim