as ready to
undergo it. He thought to himself that this was a glorious chance to
show that Christ's soldiers could be as brave as any others. One
moment only he shuddered. This was when the doctors were heating their
instruments in the fire, and he knew that soon he would have to endure
them. In those days only the very stoutest-hearted submitted to
operations, the majority preferring to die untortured. One can hardly
blame them, as there were no means known by which the faculties could
be deadened.

Before the hot irons touched him, Francis prayed, and then addressed
the fire thus:

"My brother fire: among all beautiful things the Lord has created
thee, beautiful, strong, useful. Be gentle to me this hour. May God,
who created thee, temper thine ardour, that I may be able to bear it."
With that he gave himself into the surgeon's hands, and without a
groan he underwent the operation. The brethren who were with him, ran
away the moment it began. Francis called them back.

"Oh, faint-hearted cowards!" he said, "Why did you run away! I tell
you in truth the iron did not hurt me! I felt no pain."

Then, turning to the doctor he said, "If it be not well burnt, thrust
it in again."

The doctor, who knew the terror most people felt at such operations,
exclaimed in amazement--

"My friends, this day I have seen wonders!"

[Sidenote: _Failing Health._]

For a little time the operation seems to have succeeded, and the
winter passed away with alternations of good and bad health. Francis
spent the largest portion of his time in prayer and meditation, and
after that he was able to see the number who daily begged for the
privilege of visiting him for consultation and help. His memory,
writes a historian, served him for a book, and furnished him with the
principles and facts he needed on every subject. "The important
thing," Francis used to say to himself, "is not to have understood a
great number of truths, but sincerely to love each truth--to let each
one penetrate the heart by degrees, to let it rest there, to have the
same object in view for a long time, to unite one's self to it more by
the sentiment of the heart than by subtle reflections."

In the early days of spring Francis was seized with such a violent
hemorrhage that everyone thought his end had come. Elias was hastily
sent for, but before he could arrive all immediate danger was past.
However, as soon as he was able, Francis determined to travel back to
Assis