for my own children, the offspring of so beautiful a mother! As I love
the mother extremely, I will keep the children she has had by me at
my court, and I will feed them at my table.'

"This king, most Holy Father," continued Francis, "is our Lord Jesus
Christ. This beautiful girl is poverty, which, being everywhere despised
and cast off, was found in this world as in a desert. The King of kings
coming down from Heaven, and coming upon earth, was so enamored of
her, that He married her in the manger. He has had several children
by her in the desert of this world, Apostles, Anchorites, Cenobites,
and many others, who have voluntarily embraced poverty. This good
mother sent them to their Father with the marks of royal poverty, as
well as of her humility and obedience. This great King received them
kindly, promising to maintain them, and said to them: 'I who cause my
sun to shine on the just and on sinners, who give my table and my
treasures to pagans and to heretics, food, clothing, and many other
things, how much more willingly shall I give to you what is necessary
for you,--for you and all those who are born in the poverty of my
much-cherished Spouse.'"

"It is to this celestial King, most Holy Father, that this Lady, His
spouse, sends her children whom you see here, who are not of a lower
condition than those who came long before them. They do not degenerate;
they have the comeliness both of their Father and their mother, since
they make profession of the most perfect poverty. There is, therefore,
no fear of their dying of poverty, being the children and heirs of the
Immortal King, born of a poor mother, of the image of Jesus Christ,
by the virtue of the Holy Ghost; and being to be brought up in the
spirit of poverty in a very poor order. If the King of heaven promises
that such as imitate Him shall reign with Him eternally, with how much