The adjacent fortress was intended to protect St. Petersburg, but the city has developed in such a way that the guns could only be used for the suppression of domestic revolution. The principal use of the citadel has been as a State prison. Here perished the unfortunate Prince Alexis. Being in disfavour with his father, Peter the Great, the young prince had fled to Germany. The Czar wrote to him: "If you obey me, I promise before God that I will not punish you, but that if you return I will love you better than ever; but if you do not, I give you my eternal curse; and as your sovereign, I shall find means to punish you." The Emperor of Germany and King of Naples had received promises from Peter that the young man's past offences should be pardoned, and through their influence Alexis returned to Russia. He was at once imprisoned, tried by a servile Senate, and condemned to death. In a In a dungeon of this fortress he was visited by his father, and here expired. There seems good reason to believe that he was poisoned by the Czar's orders, and, according to some historians, he was put to the torture more than once during his imprisonment. Within these walls also were immured, and in several cases executed, the ringleaders in the attempted revolution of 1825, when the Emperor Nicholas ascended the throne.

The celebrated boat which belonged to Peter the Great, and which is designated "the Grandfather of the Russian Navy," is kept in a brick building near the church. It formerly belonged to Peter's grandfather, Nikita Romanoff, having been constructed by Dutch carpenters in 1668. Peter found it lying neglected in a shed, but had it repaired and launched. There is no doubt but that his experiments with this boat developed his taste for naval affairs, and so led to the future creation of the Russian navy. The boat is carefully kept in the same condition it was in when Peter used it. It was carried with great honours to the Moscow Exhibition of 1872, and then reverently restored to its ordinary resting-place.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan stands beside the Nevski Prospect. It is a large cruciform church, reared, on a foundation of piles, at the commencement of the present century, and cost altogether about £600,000. The cross over the cupola is 230

feet above the ground. The outer colonnade of 132 columns is an imitation of the exterior of St. Peter's at Rome. Within, there is a colonnade consisting of 56 monolithic columns of Finland granite, with bases and Corinthian capitals of bronze. The Ikonostas and balustrade in front are of silver-the precious metal used in such vast quantities being (as an inscription records) "a zealous offering of the Don Cossacks" after the campaign of 1812. On the centre of the principal door of the screen, surrounded by a golden glory, is the name of the Almighty in precious stones. In this cathedral is a reputed miraculous image of the Virgin, brought in 1579 from Kazan-that powerful Khanate by the Oural Mountains that for centuries had been a terror to Russia, till Czar Ivan conquered it. This wonderful image is covered with fine gold and precious stones, to the value of about £15,000. A floor of coloured marble, steps of jasper, a marble pulpit, silver candelabra, and numerous paintings by Russian Academicians, are amongst the other notabilia of this gorgeous place of worship.

There are altogether over 200 churches in St. Petersburg, of which 165 belong to the Russo-Greek Church, 15 are Protestant, 6 Roman Catholic, and the remainder belong

to Russian sects. But few of these edifices need description here. The Preobzajenski Church belongs to the old regiment of Guards of the same name founded by Peter the Great. Outside and in, it displays numerous trophies of conquered nations. The churchyard railings are constructed of Turkish cannon. Within the building, Turkish flags, and halberds and lances, and relics of Russian royalty, cover all available space. The Church of the Holy Trinity belongs to the Ismaelof regiment, and stands on the site of the chapel in which Peter the Great was married to Catherine I., in 1707. The Czar had

forced his lawful wife Eudoxia to take the name of Helena, and retire to a convent. Catherine was the daughter of a Courland peasant, and had been married to a Swedish corporal. She was taken prisoner by the Russian troops at Marienburg in 1702, and for awhile was retained in the service of the commander-in-chief, Speremetief. The latter transferred her to Peter's favourite, Menshikoff, originally a meat-pie merchant in the public streets. Catherine was handsome and winning, and Menshikoff, to oblige his master, handed over the fair captive, who was subsequently married to the Czar, and succeeded to the throne on her husband's death.

The Nevski Monastery-or, to give it its full title, the Alexander Nevskaya Sviatotroitskaya Lavra-is one of the most celebrated monasteries in Russia. It is situated at the extreme end of the Nevski Prospect, and encloses in its vast area churches and towers

the palace cost eighteen million roubles, or three times as much as need have been spent had sufficient time been allowed; and, after all, the costly pile had to be abandoned as uninhabitable soon after Paul's death. It contains many large halls, vestibules, corridors, staircases, and painted ceilings, of considerable beauty and interest. The room in which Paul met his doom was walled up for two reigns, and is now a chapel. It was in vain that the frightened emperor had so strongly fortified his home, and concealed in it a labyrinth of secret passages, hidden staircases, and mysterious doors, galleries and subways connecting every part of the palace with the guard-room, and nooks for sentinels in every saloon and corridor. The Emperor's private study, where he passed most of his time-for he was a lover of science-was a little fortress in itself. Attached to it was a small kitchen, where one devoted servant alone prepared the Emperor's food. But all these precautions were defeated by his murderers, who corrupted his guards with gold, and assassinated their sovereign on the night of March 24th, 1801.

A body of officers-Zouboff, Benningsen, and others-penetrated to the Emperor's room at eleven o'clock on the fatal night. The Emperor, alarmed by the cries of a faithful Cossack, who was struck down at the door, attempted to reach a private staircase, but was too late. He was dragged from behind a screen, and a deed of abdication placed before him. He refused to sign. Harsh words were interchanged. The Emperor in his night-clothes stood bare-footed before the crowd of conspirators, with covered heads and with their hands on their swords. Platon Zouboff began to read the deed of abdication, but the Emperor interrupted him. Platon shook his paper angrily, saying, "You are no longer Emperor; Alexander occupies your throne! Hold your tongue!" Irritated at this insolence, Paul struck the speaker. For a moment the conspirators seemed cowed at this act of boldness. "Don't forget," cried Benningsen, "that if he escapes we are all lost." Thus admonished, the assailants rushed on their sovereign. One of them broke his arm at a single blow. The Emperor made a desperate resistance, but at last, overpowered by numbers, fell exhausted to the ground. His favourite aide-de-camp, Argamakof, took off his sash, which was twisted round the neck of the Emperor, and his sufferings speedily terminated. It seems difficult to conceive that this tragic scene took place in the nineteenth century.

The principal residence of the Czars of Russia at the present day is the Winter Palace, near the Church of St. Isaac. It was first built under the reign of Elizabeth by the Italian Rastrelli, and occupied nearly thirty years in its construction. In 1837 it was burnt down, and the Czar Nicholas forced the architects and workmen to rebuild it in a single year. It was long remembered in St. Petersburg that thousands of moujiks had lost their lives in obedience to the Czar's caprice. As the work progressed, in order to dry everything at once, the interior was kept at a high temperature. This of itself was most destructive to the lives of the workmen, especially as they had to pass at intervals to the frozen air without. But the losses were speedily replaced, and the work went swiftly on; and Nicholas had the satisfaction of seeing an event without a parallel in history-the rebuilding of a palace so vast in less than a twelvemonth.

The Winter Palace is a huge four-storeyed building, 80 feet in height, in the form of an irregular parallelogram, measuring 455 feet by 350 feet; the finest façade is towards

the Admiralty. The general effect of the building is impressive, but the details seem to awaken confused reminiscences of all the epochs. The interior of the palace is a marvel of splendour; Oriental luxury and Occidental taste are both apparent everywhere. Curtains and tapestries of silk, satin, and damask, vast mirrors, ornaments of amber, lapis-lazuli, marble, and malachite, statues, paintings, and bronzes, are all mingled in unimaginable profusion.

The galleries and State apartments of the palace are approached by a gigantic marble staircase, on the side facing the Neva. In the first gallery are portraits of four hundred

one room

THE WINTER PALACE.

Russian generals by an English painter-George Dawe. In the throne-room is an image of St. George; before it burns continually a lamp of massive gold, suspended by chains of precious stones. The numerous splendid rooms are crowded with historic and other paintings. The drawing-room of the Empress has gilded walls and ceiling. In room are deposited the Crown jewels. Here, on the imperial sceptre of Russia, gleams the great Orloff diamond, said to have once formed the eye of an idol in an Indian temple, and to have passed through various vicissitudes, till Count Orloff purchased it, and presented it to his imperial mistress. It is the largest of the Crown diamonds of Europe, weighs 185 carats, and is valued at 2,399,410 rupees, or nearly £380,000. The imperial crown of All the Russias is adorned with splendid jewels, to