the soldiers.

"Half of you get into the house, and first save the princess; the other
half keep the fire from catching the south wing. I will try to get
there."

But Nemu's brand had been effectual, the flames flared up, and the
soldiers strained every nerve to conquer them. Their cries mingled with
the crackling and snapping of the dry wood, and the roar of the flames,
with the trumpet calls of the awakening troops, and the beating of drums.
The young princes appeared at a window; they had tied their clothes
together to form a rope, and one by one escaped down it.

Rameses called to them with words of encouragement, but he himself was
unable to take any means of escape, for though the parapet on which he
stood was tolerably wide, and ran round the whole of the building, at
about every six feet it was broken by spaces of about ten paces. The
fire was spreading and growing, and glowing sparks flew round him and his
companion like chaff from the winnowing fan.

"Bring some straw and make a heap below!" shouted Rameses, above the
roar of the conflagration. "There is no escape but by a leap down."

The flames rushed out of the windows of the king's room; it was
impossible to return to it, but neither the king nor Mena lost his self-
possession. When Mena saw the twelve princes descending to the ground,
he shouted through his hands, using them as a speaking trumpet, and
called to Rameri, who was about to slip down the rope they had contrived,
the last of them all.