der a
crab apple tree. It was Father Benedictus, who had set out early to
anticipate Heinz and surprise him in his night quarters by his presence.
But he had overestimated his strength, and advanced so slowly that Heinz
and his troopers, from whom he had concealed himself behind a dusty
hawthorn bush, had not seen him. From Schweinau the walk had become
difficult, especially as it was contrary to the teaching of the saint
to use a staff. Many a compassionate peasant, many a miller's lad and
Carter, had offered him a seat on the back of his nag or in his waggon
but, without accepting their friendly offers, he had plodded on with his
bare feet.

Perhaps this journey would be his last, but on it he would redeem the
promise which he had made his dying master, to go forth according to
the command of the Saviour, which Francis of Assisi had made his own and
that of his order, to preach and to proclaim, "The kingdom of heaven is
at hand!"

"Without price," ran the words, "have ye received, without price give."
He had no regard for earthly reward, therefore he yearned the more
ardently for the glad knowledge that he had saved a soul for heaven.

He had learned to love Heinz as the saint had formerly loved him, and he
did not grudge him the happiness which, at the knight's age, had fallen
to the lot of the man whose years now numbered eighty. How long he had
been permitted to enjoy this bliss! True, during the last decades it had
been clouded by many a shadow.

He had endured much hardship in the service of his sacred cause, but
the greater the sacrifice he offered the more exquisite was the reward
reaped by his soul. Oh, if this pilgrimage might yield him Heinz
Schorlin's vow to follow his saint and with him the Saviour!--if he
might be permitted, clasping in his the hand of the beloved youth he had
saved, to exchange this world for eternal bliss!

Earth had nothing more to offer; for he who was one of the leaders of
his brotherhood beheld with grief their departure from the paths of
their founder. Poverty, which secures freedom to the body, which knows
nothing of the anxieties of this world and the burden of possession,
which permits the soul to soar unfettered far above the dust--poverty,
the divine bride of St. Francis, was forsaken in many circles of his
brother monks. With property, ease and the longing for secular influence
had stolen into many a monastery. Many shunned the labour which the
saint enjoined upon his d