Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/278

272 "While the Poles were in possession of Moscow in 1612, the monastery aided the inhabitants with food and money. The Poles again sen an army to conquer the place, but it was repulsed by the monks without any assistance from the Russian soldiers. The plague and the cholera, which have both visited Moscow, have not entered Troitska, and consequently the place is much venerated for its sanctity.

"There I a legend that when the saint first came to the spot be met a huge bear in the forest; the bear rushed forward to destroy him, but suddenly paused and from that moment the saint and the bear were friends. For days they lived together, and when the saint died the bear remained on the spot, and gave evidences of the most earnest grief. This story is implicitly believed by the Orthodox Russians, and the gentleman from whose writings I have taken it says he heard it from the lips of a Russian lady, and narrated so artlessly that it would have been painful to have expressed any doubt of its truth.

Other legends of the monastery, and incidents showing its prominence in Russian history, whiled away the time till the station at Troitska was reached. After a substantial breakfast at the railway-station the party proceeded to the famous edifice, which is more like a fortress than a religious establishment. Its walls have a linear extent of nearly a mile; they are twenty feet thick, and vary in height from thirty to fifty feet. They would offer little obstruction to modern artillery, but it is easy to see that they could make a stout resistance to such cannon as the Poles possesfed three centuries ago. There are towers at the angles, eight in all,