To return to the remark of my friend in the Kremlin on Easter Eve, the Russians in general, and the Muscovites in particular, as the quintessence of all that is Russian, are certainly a religious people, but their piety sometimes finds modes of expression which rather shock the Protestant mind.  As an instance of these, I may mention the domiciliary visits of the Iberian Madonna.  This celebrated Icon, for reasons which I have never heard satisfactorily explained, is held in peculiar veneration by the Muscovites, and occupies in popular estimation a position analogous to the tutelary deities of ancient pagan cities.  Thus when Napoleon was about to enter the city in 1812, the populace clamorously called upon the Metropolitan to take the Madonna, and lead them out armed with hatchets against the hosts of the infidel; and when the Tsar visits Moscow he generally drives straight from the railway-station to the little chapel where the Icon resides—­near one of the entrances to the Kremlin—­and there offers up a short prayer.  Every Orthodox Russian, as he passes this chapel, uncovers and crosses himself, and whenever a religious service is performed in it there is always a considerable group of worshippers.  Some of the richer inhabitants, however, are not content with thus performing their devotions in public before the Icon.  They like to have it from time to time in their houses, and the ecclesiastical authorities think fit to humour this strange fancy.  Accordingly every morning the Iberian Madonna may be seen driving about the city from one house to another in a carriage and four!  The carriage may be at once recognised, not from any peculiarity in its structure, for it is an ordinary close carriage such as may be obtained at livery stables, but by the fact that the coachman sits bare-headed, and all the people in the street uncover and cross themselves as it passes.  Arrived at the house to which it has been invited, the Icon is carried through all the rooms, and in the principal apartment a short religious service is performed before it.  As it is being brought in or taken away, female servants may sometimes be seen to kneel on the floor so that it may be carried over them.  During its absence from its chapel it is replaced by a copy not easily distinguishable from the original, and thus the devotions of the faithful and the flow of pecuniary contributions do not suffer interruption.  These contributions, together with the sums paid for the domiciliary visits, amount to a considerable yearly sum, and go—­if I am rightly informed—­to swell the revenues of the Metropolitan.