it has sprung from its ashes each time as if by magic, and has never
lost its original character, being now a more splendid and prosperous
capital than ever before, rapidly increasing in population. The romantic
character of its history, so mingled with protracted wars, civil
conflicts, sieges, and conflagrations, makes it seem half fabulous. The
population is not much, if any less than that of St. Petersburg,--eight
hundred thousand,--while the territory which it covers measures over
twenty miles in circumference.

Moscow is to the Russian what Mecca is to the pious Moslem, and he calls
it by the endearing name of "mother." Like Kief and the Trortzkoi
(sacred monastery), it is the object of pious pilgrimage to thousands
annually, who come from long distances on foot.

The Kremlin, which crowns a hill, is the central point of the city, and
is enclosed by high walls, battlement rising upon battlement, flanked by
massive towers. The name is Tartar and signifies a fortress. As such it
is unequalled for its vastness, its historical associations, and the
wealth of its sanctuaries. It was founded five or six hundred years ago,
and is an enclosure studded with cathedrals, and embracing broad streets
and spacious squares,--a citadel and city within itself, being to
Moscow what the Acropolis was to Athens. The various buildings are a
strange conglomerate of architecture, including Tartar, Hindu, Chinese,
and Gothic exhibited in noble cathedrals, chapels, towers, convents, and
palaces. There are about twenty churches within the walls of the
Kremlin. 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 base of 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 peasant-girl of Livonia.

The venerable walls of the Kremlin, which measure about two miles in
circumference, are pierced by five gates of an imposing character, to
each of which is attributed a religious or historical importance. Often
have invading hosts battered at these gates, and sometimes gained an
entrance; but, strange to say, they have always in the end been worsted
by the faithful Muscovites. Over the Redeemer's Gate, so called, is
affixed a wonder-working picture of the Saviour, which is an