Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/137

 ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST 81 amusements, a nobility of character which gives me the highest hopes of his future." But up to his twenty-fourth year nothing seemed more unlikely than that he should have any vocation to a holy life. He was called the " flower of the youth " of Assisi, rejoiced in his gay leadership of the rich young men of the place, and dreamed of winning military glory. In this capacity of taking the lead, and in the confident belief he often ex- pressed that he would one day receive honor from the world, we see one natural germ of his later spiritual eminence. Another and more potent germ was the love of the poor, and his pity for them, which he manifested from childhood. In 1 201, taking part as a soldier in a brief war between Assisi and Perugia, he was captured, with several of his companions, and imprisoned for a year. This experience, his first touch of adversity, sobered him a little ; opening his eyes to the contrast between prosperity, with idle amusement and flattery, on the one hand, and on the other, suffering. Soon after his return home, also, he was stricken down by a long and painful illness. When he rose from it and, as a convales- cent, took his first walk into the country, he was astonished to find that the beautiful Umbrian landscape which he had always so enjoyed, seemed to him cold, discolored, and sombre. A natural effect of illness, one may say. Yet it more often happens that when a convalescent returns to fresh air and the beauty of the earth, his pleasure in them is heightened. At all events Francis was vividly impressed with the nothingness of nature, as compared with the eternal splendor of God. But presently the passion for warlike renown took possession of him again. In 1206 he volunteered to join the Count of Brienne, a Guelph champion of Italian national independence, who was defending the Two Sicilies against the attacks of the German emperor, Frederick II. Announcing to his friends that he was about to become a great captain, Francis set out for the field of war, richly apparelled and with a brilliant retinue. In truth he was shortly to become a great captain, though not as he expected, in war, but in peace. On the way to Spoleto, southward, a voice that seemed to come from heaven sounded in his ears ; just as Saul was appealed to while on his way to Damascus and was converted by it into St. Paul. To the young Umbrian, half asleep, the voice said : " Francis, which can do thee most good ; the master or the servant, the rich one or the pauper ? " He replied : " The master and the rich one." And the voice resumed : " Why, then, leavest thou God, who is both rich and the Master, to run after man, who is only the servant and the pauper ? " Then Francis cried : " Ah, Lord ; what wiliest Thou I should do ? " " Go," said the voice, " return to thy native city, for the vision thou hast had has a spir- itual meaning. It is from God, not men, thou shalt receive its accomplish- ment." Heedless of whatever taunts might be flung at him, he turned hack. But the youth of Assisi, though surprised, were rejoiced to see him, and begged him to preside once more at their revels. He gave them a final magnificent banquet, at which they noticed that he vras silent and preoccupied. Immediately afterward he retired to a grotto, where he passed his days alone, entreating God to pardon