MOSCOW. 157 
this staircase, when the venerable Patriarch, c ^ p - 
bearing in one hand an obraze, or image of the 1 — . — 1 
Virgin Mary, which was supposed to work mira- 
cles, and leading young John Narishkin by the 
other, followed by his weeping sister and the 
princesses, descended, calling on the infuriate 
mob to spare his life. The populace had been 
two days seeking him ; and had threatened to set 
the palace on fire, if he were not delivered to be 
put to death. No sooner had these tigers seized 
their victim, than, cutting his body in pieces, 
they fixed his head, feet, and hands, on the iron 
spikes of the balustrade. 
We ascended by this blood-stained passage 
to the Imperial Treasury. It contains very little 
worth notice. The old General who had the 
care of it was obliged to attend in person, when- 
ever permission for seeing it had been obtained. 
He was very ill during our visit, and, being 
placed in an arm-chair in one of the apartments, 
sat grumbling the whole time with pain and 
impatience. The various articles have been 
enumerated in the anonymous Travels of Two 
Frenchmen who complain of being hurried, as 
we were. Habits of ceremony worn by the sove- 
(1) Voyage de Deux Franfais, a work of very considerable merit, 
prohibited at the time wc were in liussia. It has been occasionally 
referred to in this Volume. 
