A peasant lent him his ass, but the roads were so bad that they were unable to reach any sort of shelter before nightfall.

The unhappy travellers were obliged to pass the night under a rock; the shelter was more than rudimentary, the wind drifted the snow in upon them, and nearly froze the unlucky peasant, who with abominable oaths heaped curses on Francis; but the latter replied with such cheerfulness that he made him at last forget both the cold and his bad humor.
On the morrow the saint reached Portiuncula.

He seems to have made only a brief halt there, and to have set forth again almost immediately to evangelize Southern Umbria.
It is impossible to follow him in this mission.

Brother Elias accompanied him, but so feeble was he that Elias could not conceal his uneasiness as to his life.[8] Ever since his return from Syria (August, 1220), he had been growing continually weaker, but his fervor had increased from day to day.
Nothing could check him, neither suffering nor the entreaties of the Brothers; seated on an ass he would sometimes go over three or four villages in one day.

Such excessive toil brought on an infirmity even more painful than any he had hitherto suffered from: he was threatened with loss of sight.[9] Meanwhile a sedition had forced Honorius III.