The Little Bedesman of Christ 195

Alvernia, which looks over Italy, east and
west, to the two seas. That rock is acces-
sible by but a single foot-track, and it is
gashed and riven by grim chasms, yet withal
great oaks and beech-trees flourish atop
among the boulders, and there are drifts of
fragrant wild flowers, and legions of birds
and other wild creatures dwell there; and
the lights and colours of heaven play about
the rock, and the winds of heaven visit it
with wholesome air.

Now a great and wealthy gentleman of
Tuscany, Orlando of Chiusi, gave St. Francis
that mountain for a hermitage where he
could be remote from men, and thither, with
three of the brethren most dear to him, the
Saint went to spend the forty days of the
Fast of St. Michael the Archangel.

Two nights they slept on the way, but
on the third day, so worn was St. Francis
with fatigue and illness, that his companions
were fain to beg a poor peasant to lend them
his ass. As they proceeded on their journey
the peasant, walking behind the ass, said to
St. Francis, “ Tell me now, art thou Brother
Francis of Assisi?” and when St. Francis
said he was, the peasant rejoined, “ Look to