membering
that he who would serve Christ must conquer self, he dismounted
from his horse, kissed the leper's hand, and filled it with money.
Then he went on his road, but looked back to see what had become of
the leper, and lo! he had disappeared, although the country was
quite plain, without any means of concealment."

"What had become of him?"

"That I cannot tell thee. Francis thought afterwards it was an
angel, if not the Blessed Lord Himself."

"May I visit the lepers tomorrow?"

"The disease is infectious."

"What of that?" said Martin, unconsciously imitating his friend
Hubert.

"Well, we will see. Again Francis once gave way to pride. How do
you think he conquered it?"

"Tell me, for that is my great sin."

"He exchanged his gay clothes with a wretched beggar, and begged
all day on the steps of Saint Peter's at Rome."

"May I do that on the steps of Oseney?"

"It would not be a bad way to subdue the pride of the flesh! But
then there are other things to subdue. Dost thou love to eat the
fat and drink the sweet?"

"All too well!"

"So did Francis. He had a very sweet tooth, so he lived for a week
on such scraps as he could beg in beggar's plight from door to
door; all this in the first flush of his devotion."

"And what else?"

"Ah! that without which all else is nought, the root from which it
all sprang: he lived as one who felt the words, 'I live, yet not I,
but Christ which liveth in me.' He would spend hours in rapt
devotion before the crucifix, with no mortal near, until his very
face was transformed, and the love of the Crucified set his heart
on fire."

"And when did he go forth to found his mighty Order?"

"Not until the eighth year of this century, and the twenty-sixth of
his age. One feast of bright Saint Barnaby, he was at mass, and
heard the words of the Gospel wherein is described how our Lord
sent forth His apostles to preach two by two; without purse,
without change of raiment, without staff or shoes {19}. Out he
went, threw off his ordinary clothing, donned a gray robe, like
this we wear, tied a rope round for a girdle, and went forth
crying:

"'Repent of your sins, and believe the Gospel!'

"I was travelling in Italy then, and once met him on his road.
Methinks I see him now--his oval face, his full forehead, his
clear, bright, limpid eyes, his flowing hair, his long hands and
thin delicate fingers, and his commanding presence.

"'Brother!' he said. 'Hast thou met wit