y little in advance of Egidio, the burden of his cry being--

"Love God, fear Him, repent and you shall be forgiven;" then when
Egidio had chorused,

"Do as my brother Francis tells you, the advice he gives you is very
good," the two missionaries passed singing on their way!

But the impression produced was far beyond their simple words. The
religious history of the times tells us that the love of God was
almost dead in men's hearts, that the world had forgotten the meaning
of the word repentance, and was entirely given up to lust and vice and
pleasure. People asked each other what could be the object these men
had in view. Why did they go about roughly-clad, bare-foot, and eating
so little. "They are madmen" some said. Others "Madmen could not talk
so wisely." Others again, more thoughtful, said, "They seem to care so
little for life, they are desperate, and must be either mad, or else
they are aspiring to very great perfection!"

When the four had been through almost all the Province they returned
to Riva Torto, where they found three new candidates clamoring for
admission. Others followed, and when the numbers had increased to
about eight, Francis led them to a spot where four roads met, and sent
them out two and two to the four points of the compass to preach the
Gospel. Everywhere they went they were to urge men to repentance, and
point them to a Saviour who could forgive sins. They were to accept no
food they had not either worked for, or received as alms for the love
of Christ.

CHAPTER VI.

FRANCIS' EARLY DISCIPLES.

'Then forth they went....
Content for evermore to follow him. In weariness,
In painfulness, in perils by the way,
Through awful vigils in the wilderness,
Through storms of trouble, hatred and reproach.'

Bernardo di Quintavelle is perhaps the most important of these first
followers, inasmuch as he ultimately took his place as Leader of the
Order of Friars minor, which was the name the Franciscans first gave
themselves. We have already told how Bernardo came to join Francis,
and take upon himself the same vows. From that day his faith and trust
in God and His call to him never wavered. That was the secret of his
tremendous strength of soul. The strength of a man who is sure of his
call and its divinity is as the strength of ten.

It was Bernardo whom Francis deputed in the early days of the work to
go to Bologna, and labor there. Bologna was the centre of the