The baptism of the child consists of four ceremonials. By its sponsors it first makes the confession of faith. The priest, after crossing the child and saying prayers, blows upon it, to drive away evil and unclean spirits. After the prayer the parents leave the room, thereby symbolizing the entire giving up of the child to the sponsors; and this custom is followed even in the imperial family. The second step is the immersion; and the priest, in full canonicals, blesses the water, and anoints the infant, for the first time, on the breast for "the healing of body and soul;" on the ears for "the hearing of the Word;" on the hands, because "Thy hands have made and fashioned me;" on the feet, that they "may walk in the way of thy commandments." He then rolls up his sleeves, takes the child in his hands, stopping the ears with his thumb and little finger, the eyes with two other fingers, and the mouth and nose with the palm of his right hand, and holding up its body with the left, he skilfully plunges it into a font three times, in the name of the three persons of the Trinity.
The next step is the sacrament of unction, in which the child is again anointed with the holy oil, the brow, eyes, nose, ears, lips, breast, hands, and feet being touched with the chrism, by means of a pencil or feather: it is "the seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost." The last step is the washing of the child, and the cutting off its hair in four places, forming a cross, which is regarded as a sacrifice, its hair being the only gift the infant has to offer to its Maker. As it is cut, the priest says, "The servant of God, Nicholas, is shorn in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." The service is accompanied by prayers and litanies.
Near the Redeemer Gate of the Kremlin are the Miracle Monastery and the Ascension Convent, in which are the tombs of many Czarinas, including the mother of Ivan the Terrible, and four of his six wives, the wife of Michael, the first wife of Peter the Great, and others. The arsenal contains the cannon lost by the French in the disastrous campaign of 1812, represented by three hundred and sixty-five guns.
The huge piece at the corner of the building weighs forty tons. Outside of the original Kremlin, in the part added by Helena, the mother of Ivan the Terrible, and the regent during his minority, and called the Kitai Gorod, or Chinese Town, is the most remarkable building in Moscow, the Cathedral of St. Basil. It has no less than eleven domes, each different in shape and color from the others, over as many chapels, with other spires and cupolas. It looks like a little forest of grotesque temples. One dome is gilded; another is checkered with green over a ground of yellow; another is bright red, with white stripes; another looks like a honeycomb, and another like a coat of mail. Some forty years ago a mechanical diorama was exhibited in the United States, called "Maelzel's Burning of Moscow," in which the French troops marched into the place, the Russians fired the city, the show ending with the "terrific explosion of the Kremlin." The prominent object was a building like the church of St. Basil, which was popularly understood to be the Kremlin, and which was blown sky high at the conclusion. Happily it is still safe, though other buildings in the Kremlin fared worse. The visitor winds about in the little circular chapels inside, open to the roof of the domes, and perhaps thinks he has fallen into a nest of chimneys. They are dedicated to different saints, and are half filled with relics and holy vessels. On the site of it stood an ancient church and cemetery, where St. Basil, a prophet and miracle-worker, was buried in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was said to be "idiotic for Christ's sake." Ivan the Terrible ordered a church to be built over him, and this was erected by an Italian architect. The cruel tyrant was so delighted with the curious edifice, that he ordered the eyes of the architect to be put out, so that he could not see to build another to equal or surpass it.
The view of St. Basil closed the labors of the day, and the tired party walked back to the hotel, where dinner was served. Mr. Agneau's first inquiry was for De Forrest and Beckwith, but nothing had been seen or heard of them.
"Can anything have happened to them?" asked the troubled chaplain.
"I think not," replied the surgeon. "Probably they have done as others have—run away for a time."
"Impossible!" exclaimed Mr. Agneau. "They were officers, and well-behaved young gentlemen."
"Very likely; but they have been much dissatisfied since the election. I have feared that De Forrest would make trouble."
"But in a strange land, like Russia, unable to speak a word of the language, they would not be likely to run away."