Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/100

tors having orders not to stay at any large town, but to escort us as secretly as possible, took great care not to let us pass through that ancient capital of Russia. We lost three hours before we could cross the Dnieper, after which they led us to the house of a pop or vicar of the village, situated on the opposite bank of that river. Titow remained at Kiow, where he spent all the day. Under the basilic of Kiow there are catacombs, or subterranean vaults, called in Russian Pieczary, where seventy bodies of Russian saints and martyrs are deposited. These black dry skeletons are attired in their pontifical robes. In my visit to Kiow, in 1786, I had seen those pretended relics, which are continually visited by great numbers of people. This place is the Russian Mecca; and a Muscovite would doubt of his salvation if he did not at least once in his life go on a pilgrimage to it. The Major had too much good sense to think differently; thus, though covered the day before with the blood of the unfortunate people whom he had beaten, he