I thought to have seen in this church a specimen of Russian church magnificence in a new style, and was so provoked to find myself deceived, that when the disobliging servant of the priest told me that his reverence was asleep, and he could not give me the keys for the interior, I positively hated the place, and in my ill humour went directly to complain of the church and its rude servitors together to the Diakon Innokentie, whose name 1 saw on the door of a neighbouring house. I found the Diakon walking up and down his room. When I had made his acquaintance, and he had promised me his assistance to obtain an entrance to the church, he asked me to sit down. I saw many books in his room that had reference to the history of Russia ; and after I had become a little calmer he showed me his library. He had a great many good books ; among others, a Russian ti-anshition of the Sltiuden tier Atu/uc/it, and Massillon's sermons in Frencli, both of whicli he praised greatly. I found myself in this manner very comfortable witli him, and forgot my anger with the church of the Confessor, the sooner when he assured me 1 might enjoy tlie fine view
♦ A devotional work, vhich has for many years enjoyeil the highest ix^piilarity ill Germany, ami of wliich the celebrated uovelist Zsehokku luis lately avowed himself to be the author from the high banks of the Yausa just as well from the tower of the Andronieus convent and that I should have but a few steps further to drive.
As I found in the courts of the convent nothing particular but a few old monks wrapped in thick sheepskins. I went directly to the bell -tower The tower-keeper, whom I asked to guide me there, showed himself quite a Russian of the common stamp. He brought me to the door, but even that hesitatingly and unwillingly. At the door he said, " There are the steps, take care how you go ; mind you do not break your neck, for it is in a very bad condition." " Well, but you mean to go with me ?" said I. " Why should I go with you for nothing, I have something else to do," answered he saucily enough. " Fool ! dost think I shall not pay thee for the service ? Come with me," returned I in a harsh and imperious tone ; whereupon he took off his hat directly, and walked before, saying, " /- viniti/e, moshet buit, ya oshiptza sdddal.'^ (Ah, forgive me, most honourable sir, perhaps I have done wrong. Will you excuse me ?) All this meant that he thought he had perhaps offended some great person in me, and he became quite another man in speech and demeanour.
The view was as fine and picturesque, and perhaps more so, than any other in Moscow ; the whole valley of the Yausa, rich in gardens, trees, and magnificent houses, lay at my feet. Two years ago there was a great fire in the neighbourhood of the convent, which destroyed four hundred houses and churches. All had already been restored, churches and all, with the exception of one house, which still lay in niins ; another sign of the fresh and healthy life of Moscow, for if the city had not possessed an abundance of vital energy, such a wound would not have healed so quickly.
(the convent of the miracle)..
Towards evening I repaired to this cloister on the Kremlin, to see what wonders it might contain. In the corridor, as I entered, the old " Batiushkas," clad in black, were shuffling along to their cells. For centuries tlie good fathers must have trodden morning and evening in the selfsame path, for I found the stones worn the whole way into a complete furrow. I swam with the stream, and got into a gallery of the cloister that looked over the court and gardens. Here stood some of the fathers, who had not gone in to mass. I contrived to hook myself on to them by means of my imperfect Russian, and we were soon on good terms. W'e leaned over the balustrade of the gallery and looked down into the coui't, suiTounded on two sides by the convent and the church, and on the other looking out upon the old and the modern time, on sacred and profane, on the rude and the elegant, on the old tower of the " Spassgate/' the yet fresh buildings of the " little palace," the towers of the Vossnessensk cloister, and on other edifices.