“Arrived there not long after, Orlando and his company came to visit Francis, bringing with them bread and wine and other victuals; and St. Francis met him gladly and gave him thanks for the holy mountain.  Then Orlando built a little cell there, and that done, ’as it was drawing near to evening and it was time for them to depart, St. Francis preached unto them a little before they took leave of him.’  Ah, what would we not give just for a moment to hear his voice in that place to-day?  There, in this very spot, angels visited him, which said, when he, thinking upon his death, wondered what would become of ‘Thy poor little family’ after his death, ’I tell thee, in the name of God, that the profession of the Order will never fail until the Day of Judgment, and there will be no sinner so great as not to find mercy with God if, with his whole heart, he love thine Order.’

“Thereafter, as the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady drew near, St. Francis sought how he might find a place more solitary and secret, wherein he might the more solitary keep the forty days’ fast of St. Michael the Archangel, which beginneth with the said Feast of the Assumption....  And as they searched, they found, on the side of the mountain that looks towards the south, a lonely place, and very proper for his purpose; but they could not win there because in front there was a horrid and fearful cleft in a huge rock; wherefore with great pains they laid a piece of wood over it as a bridge, and got across to the other side.  Then St. Francis sent for the other brothers and told them how he was minded to keep the forty days’ fast of St. Michael in that lonely place; and therefore he besought them to make him a little cell there, so that no cry of his could be heard of them.  And when the cell was made, St. Francis said to them:  ’Go ye to your own place and leave me here alone, for, with the help of God, I am minded to keep the fast here without disturbance or distraction, and therefore let none of you come unto me, nor suffer any lay folk to come to me.  But Brother Leo, thou alone shalt come to me once a day with a little bread and water, and at night once again at the hour of Matins; and then shalt thou come to me in silence, and when thou art at the bridgehead thou shalt say:  “Domine, labia mea operies,” and if I answer thee, cross over and come to the cell, and we will say Matins together; and if I answer thee not, then depart straightway.’  And so it was.  But there came a morning when St. Francis made him no answer, and, contrary to St. Francis’s desire, but with the very best of intentions, dear little brother Leo crossed the bridge over the chasm, which you may see to this day, and entered into St. Francis’s cell.  There he found him in ecstasy, saying, ’Who art Thou, O most sweet, my God?  What am I, most vile worm, and Thine unprofitable servant?’ Again and again brother Leo heard him repeat these words, and wondering thereat, he lifted his eyes to the sky, and saw there