The Roman authorities often took steps to ensure that the bodies of the early Christian martyrs would not be retrieved and preserved by their followers - several hagiographic topoi concern the failure of such attempts. In the right half of the panel, Vincent's corpse has been left out to be eaten by wild animals but the wolf and the dog which attempt to do so are driven off by a crow, which defends the saint's body. Dacian's men then dump the corpse at sea, weighed down with a mill-stone.