There, in the archway of the door, dwelt, side by side, Saint Vincent the deacon, of Spain; Saint Denys the bishop; Saint Piat the priest; and Saint George the warrior; all four victims of the ingenious cruelty of the infidels.

Saint Vincent in his long gown hung a contrite head over his shoulder.

“He,” thought Durtal, “was literally butchered and cooked, for we are told in the legend according to Voragine that his body was torn with sharp combs of brass till his bowels fell out, and that after this foretaste, this hors d’oeuvre of torture, he was broiled on a gridiron, larded with nails, and basted with the sauce of his own blood.  He lay calm, praying while he was being toasted.  He remained unmoved, grilling and praying.  When he was dead, Dacian, his persecutor, ordered that his body should be cast out on a field to be devoured by beasts; but a raven came to settle by him, and drove away a wolf by pecking at it.  Then a millstone was tied about his neck and he was thrown into the sea, but his body came to land near some pious women who buried it.

“Saint Denys, the first Bishop of Paris, was thrown to the lions, who retreated before him; he was then beheaded at Montmartre, with Saint Eleutherius and Saint Rusticus.  The image-maker had not here represented him, as usual, carrying his head, but had shown him standing with his crozier and mitre.  And he was not humble and pitiable, like his neighbour, the Spanish Deacon, but upright and imperious, with his hand uplifted, in the attitude rather of admonishing the faithful than of blessing them, and Durtal stood lost in thought before this writer, whose brief book holds so important a place in the series of mystical writings.

“He, more than any other, and first among the contemplative authors, had overstepped the threshold of Heaven and brought down to men some details of what happens there.  The knowledge of the angelic ranks dates from him, for it was he who revealed the organization of the heavenly host as an order, a hierarchy copied by human beings and parodied in hell.  He was a sort of messenger between Heaven and earth, and was the explorer of our celestial heritage, as Saint Catherine of Genoa at a later date was the explorer of purgatory.

“A less interesting personage was Saint Piat, a priest of Tournai, beheaded by a Roman proconsul.  In this assembly of famous saints he was rather the poor country-cousin, a mere provincial Saint.  He figured here because his relics repose in the cathedral, for historians record the translation of his remains to Chartres in the ninth century.  By his side was Saint George, arrayed as a knight of the time of Saint Louis, his head bare with an iron fillet, armed with a lance and shield; standing as if on guard on a pedestal, showing the wheel which was the instrument of his martyrdom.

“The companion statue, on the opposite side of the door, was that of Saint Theodore of Heraclea, wearing a coat of mail, and a surcoat, and also holding a shield and spear.