154  RUSSIAN  NIHILISM  AN©

The  Fortress  Chapel  is  one  of  the  most  elaborate  and
gorgeous,  in  interior  decori>tion,  in  the  world.  It  is  the
repository  of  all  members  of  the  House  of  Romanoff
since  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great,  with  the  single  excep-
tion of  Peter  II.,  who,  dying  in  Moscow,  was  by  his  own
request  buried  there.  The  interior  presents  a  rare  com-
bination of  gold,  silver  and  tinsel  work,  giving  an  ap-
pearance of  fairy-like  splendor.  Arranged  around  the
single  immense  room,  in  two  rows,  are  the  marble  sar-
cophagi enclosed  by  an  iron  railing.  From  the  ceiling
is  suspended  a  rich  canopy  reaching  down  over  the
sacristy,  while  the  pillars  are  decorated  with  standards
taken  in  the  wars  with  Franc?,  Sweden,  Poland,  Turkey
and  Persia.  There  are  also  several  silver  and  gold  icons
— sacred  images — before  which  candles  are  kept  con-
stantly burning.  On  the  sarcophagus  of  Alexander  II.,
and  also  on  that  of  the  Empress,  there  is  placed  a  gold
crown  inside  of  which  a  small  lamp  is  always  burning,
which,  throwing  its  rays  through  interstices  of  the
crowns,  produces  a  beautiful  effect.  On  the  wall,  imme-
diately opposite,  are  hung  the  emblems  of  mourning  pre-
sented by  other  countries  after  the  Czar's  assassination,
and  also  wreaths  of  immortelles  which  are  replaced,  from
time  to  time,  by  those  who  revere  his  memor}-.
