ABSTRACT
On September 29, 1914, there appeared in The Evening News one of the most momentous documents relating to the legend of St. George, the patron saint of England. This was Arthur Machen's brief tale The Bowmen, recounting how St. George brought "the ancient archers of Agincourt to the rescue of a modern British army during the retreat before the Germans at Mons" a "few days after the battle" (xiii). As Philip Van Doren Stern notes:
It immediately created a sensation, for people who were at the beginning of a war that was then going against them were eager for a miracle. They seized upon Machen's invented tale and insisted upon believing that it was true, (xiii)
