The emperors, who from private individuals have sat by usurpation on the Russian throne, are, Boris Godunoff, Vassili Shuiski, and the ftdse Demetrius. In the cathedral of the Archangel Michael only the legitimate Czars, born in the purple, and of the race of Rurik or Romanoff, ■find rest. The tln-ee usurpers are excluded. Boris Godunoff was buried liorc, but his body was cast out by the false Demetrius, and lay for a time uraburied in tlie Cathedral Place, till it was removed by the monks, whose friend and benefactor he had been, and placed in a chapel ; whence it was removed to the clmrcli of the Trinity, where it now rests. The second usurper met a worse fate. His body was bm-nt, and the aslies thrown to all the four winds of heaven. Shuiski, who had a better right than the other two, was less hardly dealt by ; he was not indeed admitted into the church, but in a little chapel attached to it he has found a resting-place. In the inscription on his tomb he is styled Kniis and Czar ; but not Velikoi Knas or Grand Duke. His exploits against the Poles are mentioned perhaps to excuse the admittance of a usurper into the sacred ground of the church of the Archangel. His portrait is here also ; evidently a very old picture, and probably a real portrait.
The French, as we say in Germany, left a " large ham in pickle" here on the Kremlin. The ravages exercised on the most honoured sanctuary of the Russians, are yet fresh in the memory of all. The priests repeated to me with deep emotion the story of the French stabbing their horses in the church of the Annunciation, and people from the provinces never hear this without shuddering, or swearing eternal hatred to them in consequence.
With the greatest goodwill in the w^orld, the French did not discover all the gold there. A rent was made with hammer and tongs in the frame of the Virgin of the Don, which is of pm'e gold, but they were smitten with blmdness, and rejected it as copper. The priests would not allow the rent to be repaired, and show it triumphantly to strangers as a proof of the miracle. The golden cross that graces the centre cupola also escaped. The French had heard of a massive golden cross in one of the churches of the Kremlin, and supposed the great far-off glitteiing cross of the " Great Ivan" to be the right one. Napoleon caused it to be taken down, and convinced himself that it was made of wood, covered with copper gilt ; while the real golden cross remained safely among his three mock brethi'en.
Thus the French twice exposed themselves to the ridicule of the Russians ; once by rejecting gold as copper, and once by carrying off copper for gold.
The floor of the church of the Annunciation is paved with stones of all sizes and shapes ; but the stones are all semi-precious, jaspar, agate, and cornelians from Siberia. The royal seat of the Czars is of wood, covered with silver g^lt, shaped like a sugar-basin, with a cover to match.
This Httle church is rich in relics of all the saints in the calendar. They lie in different little divisions in glass cases ; a bone for every day in the year, but the cases are no longer covered with glass. The priests said that this glass caused too great an expense to the convent, none having yet been found that united the necessary transparency with sufficient strength; the throng of kissers was always so great on holidays, that the glass was broken every time, that they might bring their warm lips into contact with the sacred bones.