of
wood. Though almost every house was surrounded by a garden, these
enclosures were necessarily not extensive, and the city was peculiarly
exposed to the perils of conflagration.

On the 12th of April, 1547, the cry of fire alarmed the inhabitants,
and soon the flames were spreading with fury which baffled all human
power. The store-houses of commerce, the magazines of the crown, the
convent of Epiphany and a large number of dwellings, extending from
the gate of Illinsky, to the Kremlin and the Moskwa, were consumed.
The river alone arrested the destruction. A powder magazine took fire,
and with a terrible explosion its towers were thrown into the air,
taking with them a large section of the walls. The ruins fell like an
avalanche into the river, completely filling up its channel, adding
the destruction of a deluge to that of the fire.

A week had hardly passed ere the cry of fire again was raised, and, in
a few hours, the whole section of the city on the other side of the
Yaouza was in ashes. This region was mostly occupied by mechanics and
manufacturers, and immense suffering ensued. Six weeks elapsed, and
the inhabitants were just beginning to recover from their
consternation, and were sweeping away the ashes to rebuild, when on
the 20th of June, the wind at the time blowing a gale, the fearful cry
of fire again rang through the streets. The palaces of the nobles
were now in flames. The palace of the Kremlin itself, the gorgeous
streets which surrounded it, and the whole of the grand faubourg in a
few moments were glowing like a furnace. God had come with flaming
fire as his minister of vengeance, and resistance was unavailing. The
whole city was now in ashes, and presented the aspect of an immense
funeral pile, over which was spread a pall of thick and black smoke.
The wooden edifices disappeared entirely. Those of stone and brick
presented a still more gloomy aspect, with only portions of their
walls standing, crumbling and blackened. The howling of the tempest,
the roar of the flames, the crash of falling buildings, and the
shrieks of the inhabitants, were all frequently overpowered by the
explosions of the powder magazines in the arsenals of the Kremlin.

To many of the people it seemed that the day of judgment had actually
arrived, that the trump of the archangel was sounding, and that the
final conflagration had arrived. The palace of the emperor, his
treasures, his precious things, his arms, his venerated