Turning towards the river, the round tower at the corner of the wall was used at one time as a water reservoir for the palace gardens. Peter the Great had need of all the lead he possessed when building his new capital on the Neva, and the tower was then dismantled. It suffered from the mines exploded by the French in 1812; in 1856 it was used to store certain valuables removed from St Petersburg. The first tower eastward from the "Chateau d'Eau" is the old granary, "Jitny Dvor," now used by the priest of the adjoining church of the Annunciation. According to the legend on the wall at this point a vision of the Annunciation was seen; to commemorate which this church was built. The next tower is over the Tainitski or "Secret" Gate, a postern leading to the river, now practicable for pedestrians only. On this spot there has been a gate ever since the Kremlin was first enclosed; it was at one time used for the procession of January 6, on its way to the river, but "The Blessing of the Water" is now performed from the New Cathedral of our Saviour. The wall then runs eastward as far as the round tower near the Moskvoretski Bridge, then turns north as far as the Spasski Gate. The corner comprised within this length of the wall and a straight line from the Tainitski to the Spasski Gate is full of story. The first two towers have now no name; the next is that of the Metropolitan Peter; after the corner tower, the first is that of Constantine and Helen, the next the Tsarina's tower, then comes the small open tower in the wall itself and quite close to the Spasski Tower. It was at this corner, at first within the Kremlin itself, later outside on the Grand Place that the public executions took place. The wall here has prison cells within its vaulted arches, dungeons are beneath the towers, the corner tower once an oubliette, is still supposed to have the remains of the iron blades and spikes, upon which the prisoners fell, projecting from its walls; in the tower of Constantine and Helen were the instruments of torture used to extort confessions, and the church of the same name is that to which the accused were taken to make their oath before being led to the rack or cast into some secret dungeon. The Tsarina's Tower, now a dwelling and storehouse, has no pleasant history; the small tower in which once hung the great bell brought from Novgorod is popularly believed to have been constructed by Ivan Groznoi to afford him a better view of the executions, but, if authorities may be believed, on such occasions he more often figured as an actor than an onlooker. However this may be, it is undoubtedly the truth that of this portion of the Kremlin much that is interesting will some day be written. Sneguirev and other writers are content to describe it in very general terms; Fabricius, who for eight years was employed in the Kremlin and knows it more thoroughly than most men, in his monumental work on the Kremlin, scamps this