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.
而這些戰利品在大雨下也會頻繁著火，悲慘不已的人們為了逃命只能將它們丟棄。??！那悲痛和恐懼的場景真是令人難以想象、無法描述！這座由房屋、教堂和宮殿組成的強大而擁擠的城市，在颶風的煽動下，被大火包裹地嚴嚴實實，那景象真乃世間罕見。
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.
不過，這只是從城市內部的角度看過去，而對于城外的拿破侖來說，場面則更加地令人震撼、也更加的可怕。當大火克服了所有障礙，把一切都裹在自己的紅斗篷里之時，那大城就如同翻滾著的火海，暴風雨掃過便翻起層層巨浪。當那巨大的圓頂和高塔的頂部被燒毀，四射的火星沖向云霄，就像是燃燒著的火把一樣迸發著火花，消失在令人發狂的火流之中。天空似乎也被卷進這場大火，那憤怒撲火的人們在大火的懷抱里不停翻滾著。
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.
火柱沿著海面時起時落，滾滾的黑煙瞬間噴向空中，就好似猛然間爆發的火山。此時只有再次顯現的燒焦的克里姆林宮孤零零地高聳在被火焰和濃煙包圍的廢墟之上，佇立在這片荒涼和恐怖之中，就如同燃燒著的世界里那僅剩的一絲“美德”，被毀滅元素包裹著卻毫發未傷。拿破侖站著，帶著敬意默默地注視著這一切。雖然隔著三英里的距離，但是他公寓里的窗戶和墻壁都已經發燙，燙得他幾乎無法用手觸摸。
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，他說：“那壯觀的景象里有大海、翻滾著的大火、天空和一團團燃燒著的火焰，被紅色火焰覆蓋的大山就像大海里的巨浪，交替著噴發著火焰，火柱直達那被大火籠罩的天空之上。啊！那是世界上最壯觀、最驚嘆、最可怕的景象！”
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