Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

228MODERN VANDALISM.

founders: the very tombs are not shielded from the tempest of imperial caprice: even the dead are exposed to the fantasies of him who rules the living. The Emperor Nicholas, who is now playing the architect in Moscow, and reconstructing the Kremlin, is not at his first attempt of the kind. Nijni has already seen him at work.

This morning, on entering the cathedral, I felt impressed by the ancient appearance of the edifice which contains the tomb of Minine: it, at least, has been respected for more than two hundred years, I thought to myself; and this conclusion caused me to find the aspect of the place the more august.

The governor led me to the sepulchre of the hero : it lies among the monuments of the ancient sovereigns of Nijni: and when the Emperor Nicholas visited it, he descended patriotically into the cave even where the body is deposited.

" This is one of the most beautiful and interesting of the churches that I have seen in your country," I observed to the governor.

¢f It was I who built it," replied M. Boutourline.

" How ? . . . . You mean, doubtless, to say that you restored it ? "

" No; the ancient church was falling into ruins: the Emperor preferred its being reconstructed rather than repaired: it is only two years ago that it stood fifty paces further on, and formed a projection that interfered with the regularity of our Kremlin's interior."

" But the corpse and bones of Minine ?" I exclaimed.

" They were disinterred with those of the grand