The columns are square, from them hang the chains and jewelled crosses worn by former princes. The ikonostas is of five stages, separated by rails of brass and bronze columns--the precious metals with which it was formerly covered were looted by the French. The more remarkable ikons are (_a_) one of the Saviour's agony--a typical specimen of Byzantine work in the fourteenth century; (_b_) the richly decorated Holy Mother of God, known as the Donski Virgin, because carried by Dmitri at Kulikovo; the ikon only was saved, in 1812, the frame was mistaken by the French for copper and has been repaired; the ornaments are modern, except the eighteen portraits of saints on the margin, which are foreign. Near the altar are the two crosses of Korsun. There are four chapels on the higher storey; they are quite independent of the church with separate entrances from the gallery. That dedicated to St George is quite modern, but that of the Virgin has one of the most primitive rood-screens to be found in Moscow; on it the ikons are set round with great flat bands of silver; like that of the Saviour, and that of the archangel Gabriel, it quite escaped pillage in 1812. The sacristy--in a small building on the south side--is peculiarly rich in relics, a complete collection of sacred remains brought from Constantinople in 1328. It includes bones of different saints--contained in thirty-two silver and gilt caskets; a reliquary with the sponge used at the Crucifixion of Christ; a portion of the rod with which He was beaten; some drops of His blood; spikes from the crown of thorns; an eight pointed cross, of the wood of the "true cross," and a fragment of the stone that was rolled away from before the Saviour's tomb. To them must be added a great number of Russian Tsarian and ecclesiastical antiquities collected in Russia. SPASS NA BORU