From the death of Peter Cantani till his own death, the storm-clouds of internal struggle gathered round Francis' path. His life was not to be all one long, if hard worked for, success. No! life is not lived thus; there is the dark as well as the bright in its mosaic, but it is sad, we say in our humanity, when the dark work is done at the end. But God, Who is the chief Workman, knows best how He wants His work ordered; He has His eyes on the beautiful end, while we fix ours tearfully at the unfinished, and, therefore, inexplicable pattern. There was yet, however, one unalloyed joy in store for Francis before he entered upon his last dark years of service, one of the greatest social reforms the world has ever known--the establishment of the Third or Tertiary Order of Brothers Minor. CHAPTER XVI. "BRETHREN OF THE MILITIA OF JESUS CHRIST." "A dream of man and woman, Diviner but still human, Solving the riddle old, Shaping the Age of Gold. The love of God and neighbor, An equal handed labor; The richer life where duty Walks hand and hand with beauty." The idea of this Third Order had been in Francis' mind for a long time; in fact, as far back as his first journey to Rome, when the entire brotherhood numbered twelve! On his way home to Assisi he had preached in every village and town he passed. One day, as he was preaching in the vicinity of a large feudal castle, the whole establishment turned out to hear him, and when he had finished, his listeners, lords and ladies, officers and retainers, threw themselves at his feet, announcing their intention to follow him wherever he went, and renounce the world for ever. Never was preacher in such a plight! There they stood, the tears running down their faces, husbands and wives and little children, soldiers, bower-maidens and pages, the entire retinue that ordinarily made up the household of a mediæval lord. Francis knew that it would not be possible to carry off the lot; beside, there was no Second Order then, and what could he do with the women and children? So he calmed them by telling them that he would endeavor to create an Order into which they could come without shaking the foundations of the universe! Little he thought that the Third Order was destined to make even more stir in the world than the First or Second. [Sidenote: _What must we do?_] As the years passed by, Francis was continually met with the question, "What must we do now we are converted? Teach us how to live!"