George to the highest pitch of popularity among the nobles and fighting-men of Europe. England, Aragon, and Portugal assumed him as their patron, as well as most chivalrous orders founded at the date of these wars. In 1245, on St. George's Day, Frederic of Austria instituted an order of knighthood under his patronage; and its banner, white charged with a blood-red cross, in battle floated alongside of that of the empire. When the emperor entered the castle of St. Angelo at Rome, these two banners were carried before him. The custody of the sacred standard of St. George was confided to the Swabian knights. In the early part of the thirteenth century there existed a military order under the protection of St. George at Genoa, and in 1201 an order was founded in Aragon, with the title of knights of St. George of Alfama. In 1348 King Edward III. founded St. George's Chapel, Windsor. In the following year he was besieging Calais. Moved by a sudden impulse, says Thomas of Walsingham, he drew his sword with the exclamation "Ha! Saint Edward! Ha! Saint George!" The words and action communicated spirit to his soldiers: they fell with vigor on the French, and routed them with a slaughter of two hundred soldiers. From that time St. George replaced Edward the Confessor as patron of England. In 1350 the celebrated order was instituted. In 1415, by the Constitutions of Archbishop Chichely, St. George's Day was made a major double feast, and ordered to be observed the same as Christmas Day, all labor ceasing; and he received the title of spiritual patron of the English soldiery. In 1545 St. George's Day was observed as a red letter day, with proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel; but in the reign of Edward VI. it was swept away, and the holding of the chapter of the Garter on St. George's Day was transferred to Whitsun Eve, Whitsun Day, and Whitsun Monday. Next year, the first of Queen Mary, the enactment was reversed, and since then the ancient custom has obtained, and the chapter is held annually on the feast of the patron. In concluding this paper, it remains only to point out the graceful allegory which lies beneath the Western fable. St. George is any Christian who is sealed at his baptism to be "Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end," and armed with the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of the faith, marked with its blood-red cross, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word or power of God. The hideous monster against whom the Christian sol dier is called to fight is that "old serpent, the devil," who withholds or poisons the streams of grace, and who seeks to rend and devour the virgin soul, in whose defence the champion fights. If the warfare symbolized by this legend be carried out in life, then, in Spenser's words "Thou, amongst those saints whom thou doest see, IN The Legend of the Cross. Ω ξύλον, ᾧ μακαριστὸν, ἐφ ̓ ᾧ Θεὸς ἐξετανύσθη. Sibyll. vi. 26. N the year 1850 chance led me to the discovery of a Pont d'Oli (Pons Aulæ), near Gallo-Roman palace at Pau, in the south of France. I was able to exhume the whole of the ruins, and to bring to light one of the most extensive series of mosaic pavements extant. The remains consisted of a mansion two hundred feet long, paved throughout with mosaic: it was divided into summer and winter apartments; the latter heated by means of hypocausts, and of small size; the former very large, and opening on to a corridor above the river, once adorned with white marble pillars, having capitals of the Corinthian order. One of the first portions of the palace to be examined was the atrium, out of which, on the west, opened the tablinum, a semi-circular chamber panelled with alabaster and painted. The atrium contained a large quadrangular tank or impluvium, the dwarf walls of which were encased in variegated Pyrenean marbles. On the west side of the impluvium, below the step of the tablinum, the pavement represented five rows of squares. The squares in the first, third, and fifth rows were filled with a graceful pattern composed of curves. In the second and fourth rows, however, every fourth square contained a distinctly characterized red cross on white ground, with a delicate white spine down the middle (Fig. 2). Some few of these crosses had a black floriation in the angles, much resembling that met with in Gothic crosses (Fig. 4). Immediately in front of the tablinum, on the dwarf wall of the impluvium, stood the altar to the Penates, which was found. The corresponding pavement on the east of the impluvium was similar in design to the other, but the St. George's crosses were replaced by those of St. Andrew, each limb terminating either in a heart-shaped leaf or a trefoil (Figs. 1, 5). The design on the north and south. was different, and contained no crosses. The excavations to the north led to the summer apartment. The most northerly chamber measured 26 feet by 22 feet; it was not only the largest, but evidently the principal room of the mansion, for the pavement was the most elaborate and beautiful. It was bordered by an exquisite running pattern of vines and grape bunches, springing from four |