created thee, that He may temper for me thy heat, so that I may be able patiently to endure thy burning me." As the oculist withdrew the iron, glittering with white heat, he made the sign of the cross, and sat steadfast and unflinching. Into the tender flesh plunged the hissing instrument, until from ear to eyebrow the cautery was drawn! He was asked if the pain were not severe. "Praise ye the Most High," he answered; "for truly I tell you that I felt neither heat of fire nor pain of body." And, turning to the physician, he said: "If it be not well burnt, thrust in again." Beholding in the weakness of the flesh such wonderful strength of spirit, the physician marvelled, and extolled the miracle of GOD, saying:-"I tell you, brethren, I have seen strange things to-day."

Little benefit was derived from this agonizing operation; and Francis grew so blind and feeble that four brethren, "men of fortitude and devout spirit," were ordered to attend him constantly, lest haply he should meet with some misadventure. His infirmities daily increased; his flesh was consumed; there remained "nothing more than the skin attached to the bones." Still he caused himself to be carried about in a litter that he might preach to the people who flocked lovingly around him. A certain simple brother grieved deeply to see him so cruelly tortured:" Brother," he said, "pray to GOD to deal more gently with thee, for His hand is heavier upon thee than thou hast deserved." "If I did not know thy innocence and simpleness," retorted Francis, gravely, "I should from henceforth abhor thy company, because thou hast dared to blame the Divine judgments which are executed upon me.' As the signs of coming dissolution multiplied, he grew anxious to return to Assisi; nor were the people of Assisi less anxious for his return, inasmuch as they feared he might die elsewhere, and so deprive their town of the infinite glory that would attach to the possession of his relics. He reached his native town in safety; and its familiar air, pure, bland, yet refreshing, temporarily rekindled the flickering lamp of life. We find that he paid a visit to Cortona, in the vicinity of the shining waters of the lake of Perugia. But again he experienced a desire to return to Assisi. The whole town came forth to meet him; half in sorrow at his sufferings, half in joy that his bones

would be laid in their midst. He rested awhile-dying slowly at the Episcopal Palace; and then went on to the Portiuncula, "the holy house of GOD," which he charged the brethren never to abandon. Before he passed into the convent he turned towards Assisi, which shone brightly among the green foliage on the hill, and blessed it. He saw it never more.

He occupied his last days in dictating his testament or will, in which he bequeathed his solemn dying injunctions to the members of the Order, and urged upon them the duty of implicit obedience to the Rule, and the principles on which it was founded. Prostrate on the bare earth, clothed only in a hair-shirt, with ashes sprinkled upon him, he there awaited the coming of the awful Shadow. It would seem, however, that after having thus emblematically renounced the things of this life, he was re-conveyed to his humble pallet, when he called his disciples around him, and extending his hands and crossing his arms "in the form of that sign which he had ever loved," he blessed them, whether present or absent, in the name and in the power of the Crucified. "Farewell," he said; "farewell, my children in the fear of the LORD. Great tribulation and temptations will come upon you; but blessed are they who persevere in the work which they have begun. And now I go to GOD, to Whom I commend you all."

He then desired them to bring the Gospels and to read the beginning of the 13th chapter of S. John:-"Ante diem festum pascha." When they had ended, with weak accents, faltering and gasping often, he began to sing the 142nd Psalm :-"Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi." They were his last words. As the voice failed and sank into silence, the soul of Francis of Assisi passed into the rest of GOD.

It was Saturday, the 4th of October, 1422. And all the brethren and children of the holy father who had been called to witness his departure, with a great multitude who had voluntarily come together, spent the night in praising GOD, so that it seemed not to be a requiem for the dead, but the rejoicing of angels. And the next day they reverently interred the body in the cathedral of Assisi.

The later years of the saint are thus sketched by Dante :

"When numerous flock'd

The tribe of lowly ones that traced his steps,
Whose marvellous life deservedly was sung
In heights empyreal; through Honorius' land
A second crown,' to deck their Guardian's virtues,
Was by the Eternal Spirit inwreathed; and when
He had, through thirst of martyrdom, stood up
In the proud Soldan's presence, and there preach'd
CHRIST and His followers; but found the race
Unripened for conversion; back once more
He hasted (not to intermit his toil),

And reaped Ausonian lands. On the hard rock,2
'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from CHRIST
Took the last signet,3 which his limbs ten years
Did carry. Then, the season came that He
Who to such good had destined him, was pleased
To advance him to the meed which he had earned
By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood,
As their just heritage, he gave in charge
His dearest lady :4 and enjoin'd their love
And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will'd
His goodly spirit should never part, returning
To its appointed kingdom; nor would have
His body laid upon another bier."

Paradiso, canto xi. 87-110.

1 The bull of confirmation issued by Pope Honorius III.

2 Monte Averno.

3 The stigmata.

4 Poverty.

S. CATHARINE OF SIENA:

"LA BEATA POPOLANA.”

"A smile amid dark frowns-a gentle tone

Amid rude voices."

SHELLEY.