fed daily
from the adjoining grain shops. In the curve of the great colonnade,
copied, like the exterior of the church itself, from that of St. Peter
at Rome, bronze statues, heroic in size, of generals Kutuzoff and
Barclay de Tolly, by the Russian sculptor Orlovsky, stand on guard.

Hither the Emperor and Empress come "to salute the Virgin," on their
safe return from a journey. Hither are brought imperial brides in
gorgeous state procession--when they are of the Greek faith--on
their way to the altar in the Winter Palace. We can never step into this
temple without finding some deeply interesting and characteristically
Russian event in progress. After we have run the inevitable gauntlet of
monks, nuns, and other beggars at the entrance, we may happen upon a
baptism, just beyond, the naked, new-born infant sputtering gently after
his thrice-repeated dip in the candle-decked font, with the priest's
hand covering his eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils, and now undergoing
the ceremony of anointment or confirmation. Or we may come upon a bridal
couple, in front of the solid silver balustrade; or the exquisite
liturgy, exquisitely chanted by the fine choir in their vestments of
scarlet, blue, and silver, with the seraphic wings upon their shoulders,
and intoned, with a finish of art unknown in other lands, by priests
robed in rich brocade. Or it may be that a popular sermon by a
well-known orator has attracted a throng of listeners among the lofty
pillars of gray Finland granite, hung with battle-flags and the keys of
conquered towns. What we shall assuredly find is votaries ascending the
steps to salute with devotion the benignant brown-faced Byzantine Virgin
and Christ-Child, incrusted with superb jewels, or kneeling in "ground
reverences," with brow laid to the marble pavement, before the
_ikonostas_, or rood-screen, of solid silver. Our Lady of Kazan has been
the most popular of wonder-working Virgins ever since she was brought
from Kazan to Moscow, in 1579, and transported to Petersburg, in 1721
(although her present cathedral dates only from 1811), and the scene
here on Easter-night is second only to that at St. Isaac's when the
porticoes are thronged by the lower classes waiting to have their flower
and candle decked cakes and cream blessed at the close of the Easter
matins.

One of the few individual dwelling-houses which linger on the Nevsky
Prospekt, and which presents us with a fine specimen of the rococo style
whi