Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/124

118

The coffin is of solid silver, and, with the surrounding ornaments of the same pure metal, is estimated to weigh more than a ton and a half. The crown of the saint is preserved here, and also the bed on which Peter the Great died, and there are many interesting objects associated with the memory of nearly all the rulers of Russia.

"There is a library of ten or twelve thousand volumes, together with a large number of manuscripts relating to the history of the Empire. In the monastery are the cells of some fifty or sixty monks who reside here and have charge of a religious school which is open to students preparing