opens the "Holy Gate;" all
Russian monasteries seem to have a holy gate. "The wall, fourteen feet
in height, and more in some places, surrounding the principal court, was
built by Hetman Mazeppa," says the local guide-book. Thus promptly did
we come upon traces of that dashing Kazak chieftain, who would seem,
judging from the solid silver tombs for saints, the churches, academy,
and many other offerings of that nature in Kieff alone, to have spent
the intervals between his deeds of outrageous treachery and immorality
in acts of ostentatious piety. In fact, his piety had an object, as
piety of that rampant variety usually has. He meditated betraying Little
Russia into the power of Poland; and knowing well how heartily the
Little Russians detested the Poles because of the submission to the Pope
of Rome in those Greek churches designated as Uniates, he sought to
soothe their suspicions and allay their fears by this display of
attachment to the national church. His vaingloriousness was shown by his
habit of having his coat of arms placed on bells, _ikonostasi_,* and
windows of the churches he built. In one case, he caused his portrait to
be inserted in the holy door of the _ikonostas_,--a very improper
procedure,--where it remained until the middle of the last century.
Highly colored frescoes of the special monastery saints and of
historical incidents adorned the wall outside the holy gate. Inside, we
found a monk presiding over a table, on which stood the image of the
saint of the day, a platter covered with a cross-adorned cloth, for
offerings, and various objects of piety for sale.

* Image screens.

The first thing which struck us, as we entered the great court, was the
peculiar South Russian taste for filling in the line of roof between the
numerous domes with curving pediments and tapering turned-wood spirelets
surmounted by golden stars and winged seraphs' heads surrounded by rays.
The effect of so many points of gold against the white of the walls,
combined with the gold of the crosses, the high tints of the external
frescoes, and the gold of the cupolas, is very brilliant, no doubt; but
it is confusing, and constitutes what, for want of a better word, I must
call a Byzantine-rococo style of architecture. The domes, under Western
influence, during the many centuries when Kieff was divorced from
Russia, under Polish and Lithuanian rule, assumed forms which lack the
purity and grace of those in Russia proper. Octago