This rocky cave concealed in the midst of the olive trees became for faithful Franciscans that which Gethsemane is for Christians.

Here Francis relieved his overcharged heart by heavy groans.
Sometimes, seized with a real horror for the disorders of his youth, he would implore mercy, but the greater part of the time his face was turned toward the future; feverishly he sought for that higher truth to which he longed to dedicate himself, that pearl of great price of which the gospel speaks: "Whosoever seeks, finds; he who asks, receives; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened." When he came out after long hours of seclusion the pallor of his countenance, the painful tension of his features told plainly enough of the intensity of his asking and the violence of his knocks.[11] The inward man, to borrow the language of the mystics, was not yet formed in him, but it needed only the occasion to bring about the final break with the past.

The occasion soon presented itself.
His friends were making continual efforts to induce him to take up his old habits again.

One day he invited them all to a sumptuous banquet.
They thought they had conquered, and as in old times they proclaimed him king of the revels.

The feast was prolonged far into the night, and at its close the guests rushed out into the streets, which they filled with song and uproar.