othic, exhibited in cathedrals, chapels, towers, convents, and
palaces. We did not count them, but were told that there were
thirty-two churches within the walls. The cathedral of the Assumption
is perhaps the most noteworthy, teeming as it does with historic
interest, and being filled with tombs and pictures from its dark
agate floor to the vast cupola. Here, from the time of Ivan the Great
to that of the present Emperor, the Tzars have all been crowned; and
here Peter placed the royal insignia upon the head of his second
wife, the Livonian peasant-girl. One picture of the Virgin in this
church is surrounded by diamonds and other precious stones which are
valued at half a million of dollars. It is to be presumed that on the
occasion of an Emperor's coronation, or that of some great religious
festival, the squares, streets, and areas generally of the Kremlin
become crowded with ecclesiastics, citizens, strangers, soldiers, and
courtiers in gala array; but it seemed a little dreary and lonely to
us amid all its antiquity and mildewed splendor. Silence reigned
supreme, save for the steady tread of the sentinels; all was
loneliness, but for the presence of the sight-seer and his guide.
However busy the city close at hand, commerce and trade do not enter
within the walls of the Kremlin. One's thoughts were busy enough,
over-stimulated in fact, while strolling through the apartments of
the Imperial Palace. In imagination, these low-studded apartments,
secret divans and closets became repeopled by their former tenants.
It was remembered that even to the days of Peter the Great Oriental
seclusion was the fate of empresses and princesses, upon whom the
highest state officials might not dare to look,--whose faces in short
were always hidden. But scandal says that thus unnaturally secluded,
their woman wit taught them ways of compensation; for in spite of
guards and bolts, they received at times visits from their secret
lovers, the great risk encountered but adding zest to such
clandestine achievements. To be sure, as a penalty a head was now and
then severed from the owner's body, and some gay Lothario was knouted
and sent off to Siberia to work out his life in the mines; but that
did not change human nature, to which royalty is as amenable as the
rest of creation. The grand Palace as it now stands was built by the
Emperor Nicholas, or rather it was repaired and enlarged by him,
embracing all the ancient portions as originally de