These, too, would frequently take fire in the falling shower, and the miserable creatures would be compelled to drop them and flee for their lives. Oh, it was a scene of woe and fear inconceivable and indescribable! A mighty and closelypacked city of houses and churches and palaces, wrapped from limit to limit in flames, which are fed by a whirling hurricane, is a sight this world has seldom seen.

而这些战利品在大雨下也会频繁着火，悲惨不已的人们为了逃命只能将它们丢弃。啊！那悲痛和恐惧的场景真是令人难以想象、无法描述！这座由房屋、教堂和宫殿组成的强大而拥挤的城市，在飓风的煽动下，被大火包裹地严严实实，那景象真乃世间罕见。

But this was within the city. To Napoleon without, the spectacle was still more sublime and terrific. When the flames had overcome all obstacles, and had wrapped everything in their red mantle, that great city looked like a sea of rolling fire, swept by a tempest that drove it into billows. Huge domes and towers, throwing off sparks like blazing firebrands, now disappeared in their maddening flow, as they rushed and broke high over their tops, scattering their spray of fire against the clouds. The heavens themselves seemed to have caught the conflagration, and the angry masses that swept it rolled over a bosom of fire.

不过，这只是从城市内部的角度看过去，而对于城外的拿破仑来说，场面则更加地令人震撼、也更加的可怕。当大火克服了所有障碍，把一切都裹在自己的红斗篷里之时，那大城就如同翻滚着的火海，暴风雨扫过便翻起层层巨浪。当那巨大的圆顶和高塔的顶部被烧毁，四射的火星冲向云霄，就像是燃烧着的火把一样迸发着火花，消失在令人发狂的火流之中。天空似乎也被卷进这场大火，那愤怒扑火的人们在大火的怀抱里不停翻滚着。

Columns of flame would rise and sink along the surface of this sea, and huge volumes of black smoke suddenly shoot into the air, as if volcanoes were working below. The black form of the Kremlin alone towered above the chaos—now wrapped inflame and smoke—again emerging into view—standing amid this scene of desolation and terror, like Virtue in the midst of a burning world, enveloped but unscathed by the devouring element. Napoleon stood and gazed on the scene in silent awe. Though nearly three miles distant, the windows and walls of his apartment were so hot that he could scarcely bear his hand against them.

火柱沿着海面时起时落，滚滚的黑烟瞬间喷向空中，就好似猛然间爆发的火山。此时只有再次显现的烧焦的克里姆林宫孤零零地高耸在被火焰和浓烟包围的废墟之上，伫立在这片荒凉和恐怖之中，就如同燃烧着的世界里那仅剩的一丝“美德”，被毁灭元素包裹着却毫发未伤。拿破仑站着，带着敬意默默地注视着这一切。虽然隔着三英里的距离，但是他公寓里的窗户和墙壁都已经发烫，烫得他几乎无法用手触摸。

Said he, years afterwards,—"It was the spectacle of a sea and billows of fire, a sky and clouds of flame; mountains of red rolling flames, like immense waves of the sea, alternately bursting forth and elevating themselves to the skies of flame above. Oh! it was the most grand, the most sublime, the most terrific sight the world ever beheld!"

多年以后，他说：“那壮观的景象里有大海、翻滚着的大火、天空和一团团燃烧着的火焰，被红色火焰覆盖的大山就像大海里的巨浪，交替着喷发着火焰，火柱直达那被大火笼罩的天空之上。啊！那是世界上最壮观、最惊叹、最可怕的景象！”