In the chambers of the patriarchal palace, the name of Nikon was repeated continually. Nikon was an artful ambitious man, who wore the mitre of the patriarch when the crown of the Czars rested on the head of a fat-bodied, feeble-minded, indolent prince, Alexis Michaelovitsh. The latter was the friend of Nikon, because he was too weak to be his enemy ; and for many years the crosier was mightier than the sceptre in Russia. Nikon's credit was at the highest after the conquest of the Ukraine, which was in fact his work. After its completion, Nikon did as he liked in the empire, and Alexis did all Nikon wished. A conspiracy of the nobles at last lost him the favour of the prince, deprived him of his employments, and drove him into the Bielosersk convent, where he had begun his career as a simple priest.
His apartments are now tenanted by the priest who showed us the rarities. They can scarcely be quite insignificant, since thej were found large enough for the man who ruled one kingdom and conquered another, yet an insignificant pope complained of want of room in them.
PAKROSKI SABOR, THE CHURCH OF THE PROTECTION OF MARY.
Ivan IV., called by the Russians " the Terrible," was certainly one of the most original monsters that ever walked the earth in the human form. In the Terema, in the liighest room, which rears itself into the air like an eagle's nest, where he passed his youth, he practised his hand, by tortming animals. Of all the incredible deeds that are related of this tyrant, the most extraordinary is his putting out the eyes of the architect of the church which he built in gratitude to God for the conquest of Kasan. The Czar was delighted when this pearl and crown of all churches was finished. He ran about the building in raptures, examined every part, and declared that the architect had met his views completely. He had him called before him, pronounced a warm panegyric on the work, embraced him in thankfulness, and then ordered the man's eyes to be put out, that he might never build such another. One would expect that a building which enraptured such an original as Ivan, must be something extraordinary if not subhme; nor will any one be disappointed who enters it with this expectation. The ground on which it is built is extremely unequal. It stands close to the declivity with which the " Red Place" ends tov/ards the Moskwa, not boldly at the point, however, but cowering like a beggarwoman, half-hidden, with one leg dra^vTl up, and the other hanging down. On one side, the inequality is assisted by an artificial terrace, with a steep slope towards the Basaar ; on the other, where that has not been done, the walls hang over the descent. On so pervei-sely arranged a site, despising a very fine one somewhat further up, rises the church with its twenty towers, large and small cupolas and roofs, the whole strangely confused mavss, forming one of the most singular objects in the world. Somcthinosimilar may be seen when the clouds after a storm, arc heaped around and all the seven classes of Gothe are lying one upon another. Dr. Schnitzler, m order to give us an idea of this church beforehand, took us into a cave of stalactites, and desired us to look at the formation. Or we might ascend some volcanic mountain with Humboldt, and look for the original of the Pakroski church amid the shattered points and extinct craters. The boiling crater in which the original was securely lodged, has long been silent. That crater was the head of Ivan the Terrible, wherein the skilful architect discovered his model, and made it manifest in wood and stone.