the nearer summits golden, rosy gleams were shining, which might
come either from burning Rome or the rising daylight. Vinicius ran to
the hill, the summit was reached, and then a terrible sight struck his
eyes.

All the lower region was covered with smoke, forming, as it were, one
gigantic cloud lying close to the earth. In this cloud towns, aqueducts,
villas, trees, disappeared; but farther beyond this gray, ghastly plain
the city was burning on the hills. The conflagration had not the form of
a pillar of fire, as happens when a single building is burning, even
when of the greatest size. That was a long belt, rather, shaped like the
belt of dawn. Above this belt rose a wave of smoke, in places entirely
black, in places looking rose-colored, in places like blood, in places
turning in on itself, in some places inflated, in others squeezed and
squirming, like a serpent which is unwinding and extending.

That monstrous wave seemed at times to cover even the belt of fire,
which became then as narrow as a ribbon; but later this ribbon
illuminated the smoke from beneath, changing its lower rolls into waves
of flame. The two extended from one side of the sky to the other, hiding
its lower part, as at times a stretch of forest hides the horizon. The
Sabine hills were not visible in the least.

It seemed at the first glance of the eye that not only the city was
burning, but the whole world, and that no living being could save itself
from that ocean of flame and smoke. The wind blew with increasing
strength from the region of the fire, bringing the smell of burnt things
and of smoke, which began to hide even nearer objects. Clear daylight
had come, and the sun lighted up the summits surrounding the Alban Lake.

But the bright golden rays of the morning appeared reddish and sickly
through the haze. Vinicius, while descending toward Albanum, entered
smoke which was denser, less and less transparent. The town itself was
buried in it thoroughly. The alarmed citizens had moved out to the
street. It was a terror to think of what might be in Rome, when it was
difficult to breathe in Albanum.

He met increasing numbers of people, who had deserted the city and were
going to the Alban hills; they had escaped the fire and wished to go
beyond the line of smoke. Before he had reached Ustrinum he had to
slacken his pace because of the throng. Besides pedestrians with bundles
on their backs he met horses with packs, mules and vehicles lad