He showed us all the antiquities himself; and first we made a circuit on the ancient wall. It is a mile round and at least twenty-two feet thick, and its great glory is that the Poles have never been able to pass it. This he communicated to us with evident satisfaction. It was in ancient times the strongest fortification in Russia, and was perfectly impregnable before the use of artillery. An imperial palace formerly existed within it, not a trace of which now remains.
St. Sierge was a pious and patriotic hermit who, in the reign of Dimitri Danshoy, retired to this spot, which was then a wilderness. Some well authenticated facts exist which may well inspire a superstitious people with great veneration for this spot. Among others of a recent date, when the plague raged in Moscow during the days of the Empress Catharine, notwithstanding the gates of the monastery were always open to the crowds of pilgrims who then frequented the shrine, no case of plague occurred within the walls. The same may be observed in regard to the recent cholera.
After the circuit of the walls, we passed through the different churches. That where the reliques of St. Sierge are deposited was much crowded. His shrine is very rich. The church was crowded with pilgrims.
The interior of these churches resembles the others we had seen. The iconostase is the covering ascending from the floor to the summit, which conceals from public view the place where the sacrament is consecrated. Upon it are uniformly painted, in several rows, holy pictures of the Virgin and of the saints. In the ancient churches these are sufficiently rude and barbarous, but richly ornamented.
In passing from one church to another we saw a square brick wall covered with boards, but without any inscription, which contains the remains of Boris Goudounoff and his family. The bodies of the father and the son were taken by the fury of the people from the cathedral of St. Michael, where they were deposited with those of the other czars, and were afterwards brought to Trostza. They were formerly within the walls of a church; but, it needing repairs, in the time of the madman Paul, he ordered the walls which extended over these remains to be taken down, and the limits of this church to be restricted so as to leave them without a covering. Whilst the good archimandrite was relating this circumstance, he was evidently much affected by the barbarity of the action. This was done because Paul believed Goudounoff to be a usurper.
He has been charged with the crime of having caused the murder of the true Dimitri, the last branch of the family of Rurick. But this is a most obscure period of Russian history, and their great historian, Karamsin, leaves the question in doubt. In all other respects he was an excellent sovereign, and Peter the Great always spoke of him in terms of the highest respect.
We afterwards visited the sacristy and there saw a great many splendid sacred robes and vessels. All the sovereigns in succession of the house of Romanoff have presented their gifts, with the exception of Peter the Great, and there are several prior to that period. The specimens of embroidery wrought by the Empresses Elizabeth, Anne and Catharine the Second are very rich and magnificent. Peter the Great deprived this monastery of all its disposable wealth for which he gave them receipts, and Catharine took their lands and their peasants from them. But Peter built a church there, at least so the archimandrite said, and pointed it out to us.
The greatest curiosity in the sacristy is the miraculous crystal, or white stone, in the body of which is clearly defined and represented in black a monk in his black robes kneeling before a crucifix. It requires no effort of the imagination to present this spectacle to the eye. It is clearly and distinctly defined. I examined this stone with great care, and certainly but with little faith, and yet I am under the impression that the likeness of the monk and the crucifix are contained in the very body of the crystal itself, and are not artificial...... Nature, amid the infinite variety of her productions, has given birth to this curious piece of workmanship. The Father Antoine, in a solemn and impressive manner, presented each of us with a consecrated picture of St. Sierge.
The Father Antoine then accompanied us to that portion of the buildings destined for the students of divinity, of which there are 100 at Trostza, and the same number of monks. There we were presented to the archimandrites; Polycarpe, rector of the ecclesiastical academy, a fat and jolly-looking monk, who laced his tea strong with cherry brandy and took his wine kindly; to Peter, ancient archimandrite of the Russian mission at Peking, who has a long white beard and venerable appearance, and read Chinese aloud for our amusement; to Neophyte, formerly substitute of Peter at Peking; and to the monk Tsidore, librarian of the ecclesiastical academy. Their wine and their tea were both excellent, and we spent an hour or two very pleasantly with them. There is a room in these apartments, the ceiling of which contains paintings of the different exploits of Peter the Great; a tribute of his daughter, the Empress Elizabeth. Upon taking leave, Polycarpe presented me several treatises in Russ as a keepsake. Upon taking leave of Antoine, I submitted to be kissed by him according to the Russian fashion, first on the right cheek, then on the left, and then on the mouth. This was my first regular experiment of the kind.
Wednesday.