the ishvoshtsticks pulled up close to the very statue of Peter.

"Now, starboard your helm, my lads, and steer a westerly course," sung
out old Tom to the drivers. They did not understand what he said, but
they saw the direction in which he pointed along the quay, so they all
drove off again as rapidly as before. Harry pulled at their driver's
badge to make him stop in front of the hotel, where they found Cousin
Giles looking out for them. He had not been very anxious about their
safety, for he guessed that they had lost their way, and would probably
find it again before long, while, as he said, it would teach them to
keep a better reckoning in future. Old Tom and his companions could not
be persuaded to come in, for they said that they must make the best of
their way back to Cronstadt. They made Cousin Giles laugh heartily by
their description of the mode they had hit on for making the
ishvoshtsticks understand the point to which they wished to be conveyed.

CHAPTER FIVE.

Bird's-eye View of Saint Petersburg from the Tower of the Admiralty--
The Isaac Church--Politeness of a Russian Officer--The Hermitage
Palace--Portraits of the Czars--Magnificent Hall--Superb View from
it--Jewels--Relics of Peter the Great--The Winter and other Palaces--
Bridge of Boats--Exchange--Church of Peter Paul--Tombs of the Czars.

Cousin Giles and his young companions had climbed up to the summit of
the Admiralty tower on a fine bright morning, when they could enjoy the
strange scene which this aerial position presented to their eyes.

"Let us take it in properly, and map it down in our memory," said Cousin
Giles after they had looked round and round, then to a distance, and
down into the open spaces and streets below them, with their moving
crowd of men, and horses, and carriages, of high and low degree, dashing
and tearing here and there as if the lives of monarchs and the fate of
kingdoms depended on their speed. "First, look to the east; there we
have the rapid, clear Neva, flowing out of Lake Ladoga, which in our
mind's eye we can see in the distance, though it is too far off to be
seen in reality. Then, in the same direction, near the outskirts of the
city, the river branches off into several channels, making a delta like
that of the Nile, and forming a number of islands of various
dimensions--some so large that a considerable portion of the city to the
north of us stands on them, others containing only a few ga