the shape of a triptych about
four feet high. In the centre is represented the Virgin with the Infant
Christ on a bed, with Joseph seated and leaning wearily on his staff at
the foot, the figures being about fourteen inches high; above two angels
swing censers, and the heads of an ox and an ass appear feeding from a
manger. All the background is richly diapered, and above are four cusped
arches, separated by angels under canopies, while above the arches to
the top there rises a rich mass of tabernacle work, with the window-like
spaces filled in with red or green enamel. At the top are two
half-angels holding the arms of Portugal, added when the reredos was
dedicated to Our Lady by Dom Joao. The two leaves, each about twenty
inches wide, are divided into two equal stories, each of which has two
cusped and canopied arches enclosing, those on the left above, the
Annunciation, and below the Presentation, and those on the right, the
Angel appearing to the Shepherds above, and the Wise Men below. All the
tabernacle work is most beautifully wrought in silver, but the figures
are less good, that of the Virgin Mary being distinctly too large.[82]
(Fig. 37.)

Of the other things taken from the defeated king's tent, only one silver
angel now remains of the twelve which were sent to Guimaraes.

Of the church rebuilt in commemoration of this great victory, only the
west front has escaped a terrible transformation carried out not so long
ago, and which has made it impossible to see what the inside was once
like. If the builder was a Spaniard, as his name, Juan Garcia de Toledo,
seems to imply, there is nothing Spanish about his design. The door is
like many another door of about the same period, with simple mouldings
ornamented with small bosses, but the deeply recessed window above is
most unusual. The tracery is gone, but the framing of the window
remains, and is far more like that of a French door than of a window. On
either jamb are two stories of three canopied niches, containing
figures, while the arches are covered with small figures under canopies;
all is rather rude, but the whole is most picturesque and original.

To the left rises the tower, standing forward from the church front: it
is of three stories, with cable moulding at the corners, a picturesque
cornice and battlements at the top; a bell gable in front, and a low
octagonal spire. On the ground floor are two large windows defended by
simple but good iron grilles,