(On English gold coins, as we all know to our shame, he is given nothing but a short dagger which could not reach the enemy at all; Carpaccio knew better.) Most of the painters make this stroke of the saint decisive; according to them, S.George thrust at the dragon and all was over.

But the true story, as Caxton and Carpaccio knew, is, that having wounded the dragon, S.George took the maiden's girdle and tied it round the creature's neck, and it became "a meek beast and debonair," and she led it into the city.

(Carpaccio makes the saint himself its leader.) The people were terrified and fled, but S.George reassured them, and promised that if they would be baptised and believe in Jesus Christ he would slay the dragon once and for all.

They promised, and he smote off its head; and in the third picture we see him baptising.
I have given the charming story as _The Golden Legend_ tells it; but one may also hold the opinion, more acceptable to the orthodox hagiologist, that the dreadful monster was merely symbolical of sin.
[Illustration: S.GEORGE AND THE DRAGON FROM THE PAINTING BY CARPACCIO _At S.Giorgio dei Schiavoni_] As for S.George himself, the most picturesque and comely of all the saints and one whom all the nations reverence, he was born in Cappadocia, in the third century, of noble Christian parents.

Becoming a soldier in Diocletian's army he was made a tribune or colonel.