unseemly in life is covered by a rich and mystic
drapery of twilight. The floating bath-houses of the Neva, with their
variegated tressel-work and brilliant colors, resemble fairy palaces;
and the plashing of the bathers falls upon the ear like the gambols
of water-spirits. Not far from the Izaak Bridge, the equestrian
statue of Peter the Great stands out in bold relief on a pedestal of
granite; the mighty Czar, casting an eagle look over the waters of the
Neva, while his noble steed rears over the yawning precipice in front,
crushing a serpent beneath his hoof. The spirit of Peter the Great
still lives throughout Russia; but it is better understood in the
merciless blasts of winter than in the soft glow of the summer nights.

[Illustration: MERCHANT, PEDDLERS, AND COACHMAN.]

Wander with me now, and let us take a look at the Winter Palace--the
grandest pile, perhaps, ever built by human hands. Six thousand people
occupy it during the long winter months, and well they may, for it is
a city of palaces in itself. Fronting the Neva, it occupies a space of
several acres, its massive walls richly decorated with ornamental
designs, a forest of chimneys on top--the whole pile forming an
immense oblong square so grand, so massive, so wonderfully rich and
varied in its details, that the imagination is lost in a colossal
wilderness of architectural beauties. Standing in the open plozchad,
we may gaze at this magnificent pile for hours, and dream over it, and
picture to our minds the scenes of splendor its inner walls have
witnessed; the royal _fetes_ of the Czars; the courtly throngs that
have filled its halls; the vast treasures expended in erecting it; the
enslaved multitudes, now low in the dust, who have left this monument
to speak of human pride, and the sweat and toil that pride must feed
upon; and while we gaze and dream thus, a mellow light comes down from
the firmament, and the mighty Czars, and their palaces, and armies,
and navies, and worldly strifes, what are they in the presence of the
everlasting Power? For "it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the
earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers."

But these dreamings and these wanderings through this city of palaces
would be endless. We may feast our eyes upon the Admiralty, the Winter
Palace, the Marble Palace, the Senate-house, the palace of the
Grand-duke Michael, the Column of Alexander, the colleges,
universities, imperial gardens and summer-h