d was granted; and after he had made his orison his head was
smitten off, about the year of our Lord two hundred and eighty-seven.
When Dacian went homeward from the place where he was beheaded toward
his palace, fire fell down from heaven upon him and burned him and all
his servants.

Gregory of Tours telleth that there were some that bare certain relics
of St. George, and came into a certain oratory in a hospital, and on the
morning when they should depart they could not move the door till they
had left there part of their relics. It is also found in the history of
Antioch, that when the Christian men went oversea to conquer Jerusalem,
that one, a right fair young man, appeared to a priest of the host and
counselled him that he should bear with him a little of the relics of
St. George, for he was conductor of the battle, and so he did so much
that he had some. And when it was so that they had assieged Jerusalem
and durst not mount ne go up on the walls for the quarrels and defence
of the Saracens, they saw appertly St. George which had white arms with
a red cross, that went up tofore them on the walls, and they followed
him, and so was Jerusalem taken by his help. And between Jerusalem and
port Jaffa, by a town called Ramys, is a chapel of St. George which is
now desolate and uncovered, and therein dwell Christian Greeks. And in
the said chapel lieth the body of St. George, but not the head. And
there lie his father and mother and his uncle, not in the chapel but
under the wall of the chapel; and the keepers will not suffer pilgrims
to come therein, but if they pay two ducats, and therefore come but few
therein, but offer without the chapel at an altar. And there is seven
years and seven lents of pardon; and the body of St. George lieth in the
middle of the quire or choir of the said chapel, and in his tomb is an
hole that a man may put in his hand. And when a Saracen, being mad, is
brought thither, and if he put his head in the hole he shall anon be
made perfectly whole, and have his wit again.

This blessed and holy martyr St. George is patron of the realm of
England and the cry of men of war. In the worship of whom is founded the
noble order of the Garter, and also a noble college in the castle of
Windsor by kings of England, in which college is the heart of St.
George, which Sigismund, the emperor of Almayne, brought and gave for a
great and a precious relic to King Harry the Fifth.

THE LIFE OF ST. PATRIC