In another fresco Francis is preaching to the birds at Bevagna; in another we see the arid summit of La Vernia above the Casentino valley, where, in his later years, he is said to have received the Stigmata. Another fresco full of beauty and interest is called "The Mourning of the Nuns of San Damiano." It shows how, after the saint's death, his body was carried past the convent of San Damiano, on its way to sepulture at San Giorgio; the saintly Clara had been for some years Abbess of the little convent in the wood, and she and the Poor Clares, her Sisters, wept over the body of their beloved founder.
These frescoes, and the thoughts they recall, are deeply interesting, and yet the Upper Church is not so delightful as the Lower one is,—at least, we did not find it so fascinating, although, in addition to the frescoes, the painted windows are full of beauty; there is rather too much light; one misses the rich mellowness of atmosphere which fills the Lower Church with a dim mystery of splendid colour, especially one misses the work of the Sienese painters.
The way to La Vernia, judging by the fresco, must have been terribly rugged. The favourite resort of St. Francis, when he retired from the distractions of life at La Portioncula, to give himself more fully to prayer and contemplation, was Le Carceri; the cells are still to be seen in a ravine on the side of rugged Monte Subasio, some way north of San Damiano. Le Carceri is a series of caves in the solid rock, containing the monks' cells; it is backed by a wood, and has the hill torrent before it. The walk there from Assisi is full of beauty, and it is not a very long way from Piazza Nuova, leaving Assisi by Porta Cappucini. Here the saint had frequent talk with the birds in the woods near Le Carceri; the ilex tree is still shown on which the winged disciples perched while Saint Francis talked with them.
OUTSIDE
SAN FRANCESCO
It was at Le Carceri that he invited the nightingale to try which could sing longest to the praise and glory of God. Brother Leo declined to join in this trial, but the saint and the nightingale sang on through the night, till Francis, completely exhausted, had to yield victory to the bird.
While we stood gazing at the frescoes, thinking of all these things, Fra Antonio said softly:
"The Signora and the Signori have now seen all I can to-day show them."
We longed to linger, but already the kind man had given us much of his time; he quaintly added, "It is, moreover, my dinner-hour."