XI. THE PLACE OF DRAGONS 397

had died long ago rather than that I should lose you thus.’ And she fell at his feet, asking of him a father’s blessing. And when he had blessed her once and again, with tears she went her way to the shore. Now St. George chanced to pass by that place, and he saw her, and asked why she wept. But she answered, ‘Good youth, mount quickly and flee away, that you die not here shamefully with me.’ Then St. George said, ‘Fear not, maiden, but tell me what it is you wait for here, and all the people stand far off beholding.’ And she said, ‘I see, good youth, how great of heart you are: but why do you wish to die with me?’ And St. George answered, ‘Maiden, do not fear: I go not hence till you tell me why you weep.’ And when she had told him all, he answered, ‘Maiden, have no fear, for in the name of Christ will I save you.’ And she said, ‘Good soldier,-lest you perish with me! For that I perish alone is enough, and you could not save me; you would perish with me.’ Now while she spoke the dragon raised his head from the waters. And the maiden cried out, all trembling, ‘Flee, good my lord, flee away swiftly.’”* But our “very loyal chevalier of the faith” saw cause to disobey the lady.

239. Yet Carpaccio means to do much more than just repeat this story. His princess (it is impossible, without undue dividing of its substance, to put into logical words the truth here “embodied in a tale”)-but this princess represents the soul of man. And therefore she wears a coronet of seven gems, for the seven virtues; and of these, the midmost that crowns her forehead is shaped into the figure of a cross, signifying faith, the saving virtue.† We shall see¹ that in the picture of Gethsemane also, Carpaccio makes the representative of faith central. Without faith,

* Legenda Aurea.

† St. Thomas Aquinas, putting logically the apostle’s “substance of things hoped for,” defines faith as “a habit of mind by which eternal life is begun in us” (Summa ii., iii., iv., 1).

¹ [A reference to the intended continuation: see above, p. 369.]

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