Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ... ACT II THE KNIGHT (In the background cypresses and pines stand out against the sky. On the right, the Chapel of St. Damian; by the crumbling wall, above a stone altar, can be seen a Byzantine crucifix, consecrated to St. Mary; a missal is upon the altar.) bernard, Egidius and Peter. Bernard. Behold the ruined Chapel of St. Damian, where the cloth-merchant's son will buckle on the golden spur of knighthood. Egidius. Wherefore has he preferred this ancient hermitage? Peter. Who can unravel the crotchets of Francis? Egidius. The people will flock to see him consecrate. Peter. Our bishop Guido is to lay his hands upon the new-fledged Paladin. He goes into the chapel. Egidius. This ceremony will give high pleasure to Bernadone. It has cost him many a ducat, but vanity has muzzled avarice. A knight's sire! It has fetched his purse-strings open. Our good friend is sumptuously furnished. Bernard. Coming out of the chapel. This ruin is naked to all the winds and nothing I can see, but a tall Christ, an ancient painting and a mouldering missal. Peter. What strange imaginings has Francis! Bernard. He is fitly named. The faults and virtues of fair France are vested in him. Dreamer and madcap, a man of whims and bounties, heroic and the son of folly. What he says would ever make men gape. We laugh and he weeps; he laughs upon our gravity. Is he poet, is he monk or is he dissolute? For in him three men are mingled and haply to be a saint, haply a madman is his destiny. Eaimus. Poet, not hero, is his mark. Conceive him cleaving the foemen! Use horse or dog with roughness and his spirit stirs. Let a chance beggar cross his steps and he is moved to pity. In winter, the very skylarks are his care. Peter. Surely he is valiant. My eyes have watched his disregard of peril, but...
