As the escort were confiding their discomfiture to the friars, Francis, who knew these good peasants, said: "If you had asked for food without offering to pay, you would have found all you wanted." He was right, for, following his advice, they received for nothing all that they desired.[19] The arrival of the party at Assisi was hailed with frantic joy.

This time Francis's fellow-citizens were sure that the Saint was not going to die somewhere else.[20] Customs in this matter have changed too much for us to be able thoroughly to comprehend the good fortune of possessing the body of a saint.

If you are ever so unlucky as to mention St.Andrew before an inhabitant of Amalfi, you will immediately find him beginning to shout "_Evviva San Andrea! Evviva San Andrea!_" Then with extraordinary volubility he will relate to you the legend of the _Grande Protettore_, his miracles past and present, those which he might have done if he had chosen, but which he refrained from doing out of charity because St.
Januarius of Naples could not do as much.

He gesticulates, throws himself about, hustles you, more enthusiastic over his relic and more exasperated by your coldness than a soldier of the Old Guard before an enemy of the Emperor.
In the thirteenth century all Europe was like that.
We shall find here several incidents which we may be tempted to consider shocking or even ignoble, if we do not make an effort to put them all into their proper surroundings.
Francis was installed in the bishop's palace; he would have preferred to be at Portiuncula, but the Brothers were obliged to obey the injunctions of the populace, and to make assurance doubly sure, guards were placed at all the approaches of the palace.
The abode of the Saint in this place was much longer than had been anticipated.

It perhaps lasted several months (July to September).