By a holy violence he was to arrive at last at a pure and virile faith; but the road to this point is long, and sown thick with obstacles, and at the moment at which we have arrived he had not yet entered upon it, he did not even suspect its existence; all he knew was that pleasure leads to nothingness, to satiety and self-contempt.
He knew this, and yet he was about to throw himself once more into a life of pleasure.

The body is so weak, so prone to return to the old paths, that it seeks them of itself, the moment an energetic will does not stop it.

Though no longer under any illusion with respect to it, Francis returned to his former life.

Was he trying to divert his mind, to forget that day of bitter thought?
We might suppose so, seeing the ardor with which he threw himself into his new projects.[3] An opportunity offered itself for him to realize his dreams of glory.

A knight of Assisi, perhaps one of those who had been in captivity with him at Perugia, was preparing to go to Apulia under orders from Count Gentile.[4] The latter was to join Gaultier de Brienne, who was in the south of Italy fighting on the side of Innocent III.