Four men with rifles can hold that place against a thousand.

Come." "I obey," she answered, bowing her head.
We went down the stairway that led from the roof on which the inhabitants of the palace were accustomed to spend much of their day, and even to sleep in hot weather, as is common in the East.

Another minute and we should have been too late.

The fire from one of the domes had spread to the upper story, and was already appearing in little tongues of flame mingled with jets of black smoke through cracks in the crumbling partition wall.
As a matter of fact this wall fell in just as my son Roderick, the last of us, was passing down the stairs.

With the curiosity of youth he had lingered for a few moments to watch the sad scene below, a delay which nearly cost him his life.
On the ground floor we found ourselves out of immediate danger, since the fire was attacking this part of the palace from above and burning downward.