"The demons are commissioned with the chastisements of God," said Francis; "as a podesta sends his executioner to punish the criminal, so God sends demons, who in this are his ministers....

Why has he sent them to me?
Perhaps this is the reason: The cardinal desired to be kind to me, and I have truly great need of repose, but the Brothers who are out in the world, suffering hunger and a thousand tribulations, and also those others who are in hermitages or in miserable houses, when they hear of my sojourn with a cardinal will be moved to repine.

'We endure all privations,' they will say, 'while he has all that he can desire; 'but I ought to give them a good example--that is my true mission." ...
Early next morning, therefore he quitted the tower, and having told the cardinal all, took leave of him and returned to the hermitage of Monte Colombo, near Rieti.

"They think me a holy man," he said, "and see, it needed demons to cast me out of prison."[26] This story, notwithstanding its strange coloring, shows plainly how strong was his instinct for independence.

To compare the hospitality of a cardinal to an imprisonment! He spoke better than he knew, characterizing in one word the relation of the Church to his Order.
The lark was not dead; in spite of cold and the north wind it gayly took its flight to the vale of Rieti.
It was mid-December.