As he thought these things he felt sure that he heard them calling to
him (as the Man from Macedonia had called to St. Paul)--"Come over and
help us." St. Paul had brought the story of Jesus Christ to Europe;
and had suffered prison and scourging and at last death by the
executioner's sword in doing it; must not Francis be ready to take the
same message back again from Europe to the Near East and to suffer for
it?

"I will go," he said, "but to save the Saracens, not to slay them."

He was not going out to fight, yet he had in his heart a plan that
needed him to be braver and more full of resource than any warrior
in the armies of the Crusades. He was as much a Lion-hearted hero
as Richard Coeur-de-Lion himself, and was far wiser and indeed more
powerful.

So he took a close friend, Brother Illuminato, with him and they
sailed away together over the seas. They sailed from Italy with Walter
of Brienne, with one of the Crusading contingents in many ships.
Southeast they voyaged over the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Francis talked with the Crusaders on board; and much that they said
and did made him very sad. They squabbled with one another.
The knights were arrogant and sneered at the foot soldiers; the
men-at-arms did not trust the knights. They had the Cross on their
armour; but few of them had in their hearts the spirit of Jesus who
was nailed to the Cross.

At last the long, yellow coast-line of Egypt was sighted. Behind it