y War in his veins,--the tingle
of the desire to be in it. He heard the stories of the daring of the
Crusaders; he heard of a great victory over the Saracens.

Francis, indeed, wanted Jesus Christ to conquer men more than he
wanted anything on earth; but he knew that men are only conquered by
Jesus Christ if their hearts are changed by Him.

"Even if the Saracens are put to the sword and overwhelmed, still they
are not saved," he said to himself.

As he thought these things he felt sure that he heard them calling to
him (as the Man from Macedonia had called to St. Paul)--"Come over and
help us." St. Paul had brought the story of Jesus Christ to Europe;
and had suffered prison and scourging and at last death by the
executioner's sword in doing it; must not Francis be ready to take the
same message back again from Europe to the Near East and to suffer for
it?

"I will go," he said, "but to save the Saracens, not to slay them."

He was not going out to fight, yet he had in his heart a plan that
needed him to be braver and more full of resource than any warrior
in the armies of the Crusades. He was as much a Lion-hearted hero
as Richard Coeur-de-Lion himself, and was far wiser and indeed more
powerful.

So he took a close friend, Brother Illuminato, with him and they
sailed away together over the seas. They sailed from Italy with Walter
of Brienne, with one of the Crusading contingents in many ships.
Southeast they voyaged over the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Francis talked with the Crusaders on board; and much that they said
and did made him very sad. They squabbled with one another.
The knights were arrogant and sneered at the foot soldiers; the
men-at-arms did not trust the knights. They had the Cross on their
armour; but few of them had in their hearts the spirit of Jesus who
was nailed to the Cross.

At last the long, yellow coast-line of Egypt was sighted. Behind it
lay the minarets and white roofs of a city. They were come to the
eastern mouth of the Nile, on which stood the proud city of Damietta.
The hot rays of the sun smote down upon the army of the Crusaders as
they landed. The sky and the sea were of an intense blue; the sand and
the sun glared at one another.

Francis would just be able to hear at dawn the cry of the muezzin from
the minarets of Damietta, "Come to prayer: there is no God but Allah
and Mahomet is his prophet. Come to prayer. Prayer is better than
sleep."

John of Brienn