lt and candles embellished it, and a large, gilt cross upon it
bore an image of the crucified Lord. All this was not unlike what we had
seen many times. But four immense twisted columns rose from its four
corners--columns of Egyptian marble, writhing like spotted serpents.
They supported a canopy of gold, and the play of lights upon this,
through the stained windows above and on either side, was indescribable.
As we entered the door, darkness enveloped it, save where an invisible
sun seemed to touch the roof of gold and rest lightly upon the pillars;
an invisible sun, indeed, for, without, the sky was heavy with clouds.
As we advanced, this unearthly light touched new points--the gilded
candlesticks, the dying Saviour, but above all the writhings of these
monster serpents, until the whole seemed a thing of life, a something
which grew and expanded every moment, and was almost fearful to look
upon. Filling the centre of the chapel was a circular marble wall
breast-high. Do you remember, in going to the old Senate chamber at
Washington, after passing through the rotunda, the great marble
well-curb down which you could look into the room below? This was like
that, only more vast. Over it leaned a hundred people, at least, gazing
down upon what? A circular, roofless room, a crypt to hold a tomb; each
pillar around its circumference was the colossal figure of a woman;
between these hung the tattered tri-colors borne in many a fierce
conflict, beneath the burning suns of Egypt and over the dreary snows of
Russia, with seventy colors captured from the enemies of France. A
wreath of laurel in the mosaic floor surrounded the names Austerlitz,
Marengo, Friedland, Jena, Wagram, Moscow, and Pyramids, and in the
centre rose the sarcophagus of Finland granite, prepared to hold the
body of him whose ambition knew no bounds. The letter N upon one
polished side was the only inscription it bore. He who wrote his name in
blood needed no epitaph. The entrance to this crypt is through bronze
doors, behind the altar, and gained by passing under it. On either side
stood a colossal figure in bronze; kings they seemed to be, giant kings,
in long black robes and with crowns of black upon their heads. One held,
upon the black cushion in his hands, a crown of gold and a golden sword;
the other, a globe crowned with a cross and a golden sceptre. They were
so grand, and dark, and still, they gazed upon us so fixedly from out
their great, grave eyes, t