of smoke to his
nostrils. At the same time the summit of the height was becoming gilded.

"The fire!" thought Vinicius.

The night had paled long since, the dawn had passed into light, and on
all the nearer summits golden and rosy gleams were shining, which might
come either from burning Rome or the rising daylight. Vinicius touched
the summit at last, and then a terrible sight struck his eyes.

The whole 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 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.

To Vinicius 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 growing 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 as it were 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.

Despair seized Vinicius anew, and terror began to raise the hair on
his head. But he tried to fortify himself as best he might. "It is
impossibl