When the cannon are cast, bored, and finished, amid the songs of the workmen — a Russian workman is always singing, whether in the service of Ceres or of Mars — they are brought to the place of trial, where they are thoroughly examined by the engineers and masters of the works, till at last the master sets his stamp upon them and baptizes them. The heavy birth is accomplished. " Go on thy bloody path, thou giant child, and let thy first stammering be in thunder ! Scare the enemy from the paternal fields ! Be thy country's truest friend and turn thy forehead to the foe, that her temples may stand, her gardens bloom, and her children flourish in peace I"
The finished cannon are piled up in the spacious inner courts of the arsenal. We saw as many here, ready to the last nail, A\-ith rammer, match, and sponge, as would have sufficed to give the spectacle of the battle of Leipsic over again. We counted 800 in one place, as yet aU free from crime and blood ; but they bear evil in their hearts, and but await the wave of one mighty hand to begin, with the aid of a thousand willing ones, their destructive flight.
The veil that hangs over Europe's future is impenetrable, and the West looks with terror for the moment when it shall be raised. Where will be the theatre — what the parts that will be played by those actors, now ready painted and dressed ? Wliose is the burning city — whose the host at which they are to aim? To whom will Victory give the palm? Will they enter Vienna, or Berlin, or Paris ? Triumphant, to threaten yet further, or captive and fettered, as silent trophies to adorn their public buildings ?
The courts of the arsenals are filled with balls, the doors and passages adorned with them in pyramids. They are black, and no prophetic or fateproclaimuig spirit hand has yet inscribed upon them " The — of November, 18 — , to appear in the market-places ofOlmiitz;" or "in the spring of 18 — , with the first swallows, in Constantinople ;" or " to awaken up the English sailors at Whitsuntide ;" or " to greet the Parisians on New Year's Eve ; " or " in 19 — , to bring the rebellious Swedes to submission;" or " in 1910, to make the Chinese pliant." In fact, so large a future lies before the Russian cannon-baUs, their destiny is so adventurous, that fanoy is tamed when she ponders on all the possible events in their existence, and on all the pens and printing-presses to vv^hich the description of their exploits may give emploTnent.
When the Emperor Paul began to be afraid of his subjects, he intrenched himself behind the strong walls of the Michaiiow Samok (fort). He pulled down the old summer palace on the Fontanka, and built in its stead one of granite, surrounded by walls and ditches, and bristling with cannon, and dedicated it to the archangel Michael according to Russian custom, which dedicates to protecting saints and angels not only churches, but fortresses, castles, and other buildings. The castle has a more gloomy exterior than the other palaces of St. Petersburg, and an extraordinary style of architecture. It is an immense, high, strong, massive square, whose four facades all differ the one from the other. The ditches are again partly filled up, and laid out in gardens, but the main entrance is still reached over several drawbridges, Hke a knightly castle in the middle ages. In the square before the chief gate stands a monument, insignificant enough as a work of art, which Paul erected to Peter the Great with the inscription, " Prodiidu Pravnulc" (the grandson to the grandfather). Over the principal door, which is over-loaded with architectural ornaments, is inscribed in golden letters a passage from the Bible in the old Slavonian language. " On thy house, wiU the blessing of the Lord rest for evermore." This prophecy was badly fulfilled, for the emperor had only inhabired the house three months when he met his death from a hand that his cannon could not protect him against.
The palace was built with extraordinary rapidity, five thousand men were employed on it daily till its completion. To dry the walls more quickly, large iron plates were made red-hot, and fastened to the walls for a time. Nevertheless, the masses of stone and lime were not to be dried so rapidly, and very soon after the death of the emperor the palace was abandoned as quite uninhabitable. Although it has been completely repaired it has never been dwelt in since, but appHed to other purposes. The expense of the building was not less than 18,000,000 rubles. By taking sufficient time to it, it might easily have been done for six milhons. The halls and spaces of the castle are large and labyrinth-like. A splendid marble stone staircase leads to the first story, and the vestibules and cor-