Did Lull accomplish anything?  He was dead; but he had conquered.  He had conquered his old self.  For the Lull who had, in a fit of temper, smitten his Saracen slave now smiled on the men who stoned him; and the Lull who had showed the white feather of fear at Genoa, now defied death in the market-place of Bugia.  And in that love and heroism, in face of hate and death, he had shown men the only way to conquer the scimitar of Mohammed, “the way in which Christ and His Apostles achieved it, namely, by love and prayers, and the pouring out of tears and blood.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 9:  June 30. 1315.]

[Footnote 10:  Acts vi. 8-vii. 60.]

CHAPTER IV

FRANCIS COEUR-DE-LION

(St. Francis of Assisi) A.D. 1181-1226 (Date of Incident, 1219)

I

The dark blue sky of an Italian night was studded with sparkling stars that seemed to be twinkling with laughter at the pranks of a lively group of gay young fellows as they came out from a house half-way up the steep street of the little city of Assisi.

As they strayed together down the street they sang the love-songs of their country and then a rich, strong voice rang out singing a song in French.

“That is Francis Bernardone,” one neighbour would say to another, nodding his head, for Francis could sing, not only in his native Italian, but also in French.

“He lives like a prince; yet he is but the son of a cloth merchant,—­rich though the merchant be.”

So the neighbours, we are told, were always grumbling about Francis, the wild spendthrift.  For young Francis dressed in silk and always in the latest fashion; he threw his pocket-money about with a free hand.  He loved beautiful things.  He was very sensitive.  He would ride a long way round to avoid seeing the dreadful face of a poor leper, and would hold his nose in his cloak as he passed the place where the lepers lived.

He was handsome in face, gallant in bearing, idle and careless; a jolly companion, with beautiful courtly manners.  His dark chestnut hair curled over his smooth, rather small forehead.  His black twinkling eyes looked out under level brows; his nose was straight and finely shaped.

When he laughed he showed even, white, closely set teeth between thin and sensitive lips.  He wore a short, black beard.  His arms were shortish; his fingers long and sensitive.  He was lightly built; his skin was delicate.

He was witty, and his voice when he spoke was powerful and sonorous, yet sweet-toned and very clear.

For him to be the son of a merchant seemed to the gossips of Assisi all wrong—­as though a grey goose had hatched out a gorgeous peacock.

The song of the revellers passed down the street and died away.  The little city of Assisi slept in quietness on the slopes of the Apennine Mountains under the dark clear sky.