him by the stable where the Son of Mary was born, the workshop where he
toiled, the olive-tree where he accepted the bitter cup? Alas! the
documents here suddenly fail us. Setting out from Damietta very shortly
after the siege (November 5, 1219) he may easily have been at Bethlehem
by Christmas. But we know nothing, absolutely nothing, except that his
sojourn was more prolonged than had been expected.

Some of the Brothers who were present at Portiuncula at the
chapter-general of 1220 (Whitsunday, May 17th) had time enough to go to
Syria and still find Francis there;[28] they could hardly have arrived
much earlier than the end of June. What had he been doing those eight
months? Why had he not gone home to preside at the chapter? Had he been
ill?[29] Had he been belated by some mission? Our information is too
slight to permit us even to venture upon conjecture.

Angelo Clareno relates that the Sultan of Egypt, touched by his
preaching, gave command that he and all his friars should have free
access to the Holy Sepulchre without the payment of any tribute.[30]

Bartholomew of Pisa on his part says incidentally that Francis, having
gone to preach in Antioch and its environs, the Benedictines of the
Abbey of the Black Mountain,[31] eight miles from that city, joined the
Order in a body, and gave up all their property to the Patriarch.

These indications are meagre and isolated indeed, and the second is to
be accepted only with reserve. On the other hand, we have detailed
information of what went on in Italy during Francis's absence. Brother
Giordano's chronicle, recently discovered and published, throws all the
light that could be desired upon a plot laid against Francis by the very
persons whom he had commissioned to take his place at Portiuncula, and