saint’s altar, St. George let ♦MAPPA DE PORTUGAL, T. II. 257.♦ his spear drop from his hand upon the offender’s head. The image which performed this miracle, after appearing annually in the procession during more than 350 years, was destroyed by fire at the time of the great earthquake. A new one, however, had been substituted, which succeeded to all the honours and miraculous properties of its predecessor. One of the finest horses which could be found in Portugal was selected to bear the saint in the great procession, and reserved for that single purpose, as if any other would have desecrated it. Junot, however, had taken St. George’s horse for himself, and rode it every Sunday when he reviewed his troops. And this year, for the first time, St. George was not to bear a part in the pageant: the reason which the French assigned for excluding him was, that he could not appear with his usual splendour, because the jewels of the Cadaval family, which he always wore in his hat on that day, had been taken to Brazil when the court emigrated. Other motives were imagined by the Portugueze: when the saint returned, after the fatigues of the day, a royal present had always been allotted him; it was thought that the French wished to spare themselves this expense. They were carrying on works within the circuit of the castle which were designed to command the city, and render the place defensible against the English and the Portugueze themselves; these works were carried on secretly, but it was part of the ceremony that St. George should enter the castle, and in that case his retinue would have observed what ♦NEVES, III. 257.♦ was going on. Lastly, the people said that the French did not choose to let St. George go into public because he was an English saint. ♦THE PROCESSION INTERRUPTED BY A PANIC FEAR.♦