"We agreed with him that it was very natural a Frenchman should make such a proposal and the Russians reject it. An amusing thing is that some of the guns bear the names 'Invincible,' 'Eagle,' 'Conqueror,' 'Triumph,' and the like, quite in mockery of their captive condition.
"Doctor Bronson said he was reminded of an incident that is said to have happened in an American navy-yard fifteen or twenty years after the war of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain.
"An Englishman was visiting the navy-yard, and while wandering among the cannon which lay peacefully in one of the parks, he found one which bore the British crown, with the stamp 'G. R.' beneath it. The stamp and crown told very plainly the history of the gun, but the Briton was doubtful. Turning to a sailor who was standing near, he remarked,
"'It's easy enough to put that stamp on a gun of Yankee make.'
"'Well,' replied the sailor, 'we took forty-four of those guns, with the stamps already on, in just seventeen minutes."[4]
[4] Referring to the battle between the _Constitution_ and _Guerriere_, August 19, 1812.
"The stranger had no more conundrums to propose.
"There are seven monster cannon in front of one of the arsenals in the Kremlin that have probably never enjoyed the honor of being fired; certainly some of them would be likely to burst if filled with an ordinary charge of powder. The smallest weighs four tons and the largest forty tons. Some of them are unusually long in proportion to their diameter, and others are exactly the reverse. The largest was cast in 1586, if we may believe an inscription upon it, at the orders of the Czar Feodor; but whether it was intended for ornament or use is difficult to say. It is remarkable as a piece of casting; and the carriage is nearly as interesting as the gun. We enclose a photograph; and by comparing the cannon with the figures of the soldiers seated below the muzzle, you can get an idea of the colossal size of this piece.
"As we came out through the 'Holy Gate' of the Kremlin we were in front of the Church of St. Basil, the one whose architect is said to have been blinded by order of John the Terrible, to make sure that the structure should not be duplicated. It stands on the site of an ancient church where St. Basil was buried, in 1552. It was begun in 1555, and is said to have occupied twenty years in building.