This was indeed the case—­the human frame, as is now well known, being capable of sustaining a heat considerably above that of boiling water.  The walls were now so hot that the hand could not be borne upon them for an instant.

“My feet are burning!” the prince exclaimed, “Reach down that ladder from the wall.”

They laid the ladder on the ground and stood upon it, thus avoiding any contact with the hot stone.

“If this goes on,” Prince Rupert said, with a laugh; “there will be nothing but our swords left.  We are melting away fast, like candles before a fire.  Truly I do not think that there was so much water in a man as has floated down from me during the last half-hour.”

Harry was so placed that he could command a sight through the loophole, and he exclaimed, “They are riding away!”

This was indeed the case.  The whole building was now one vast furnace, and having from the first no hope that their friends, if there, could have survived, they had, hearing that Lady Sidmouth and her daughter had been taken to Storton, determined to ride thither to take them from the hands of the Roundheads, and to learn from them the fate of their leaders.

Another two hours passed.  The heat was still tremendous, but they could not feel that it was increasing.  Once or twice they heard terrific crashes, as portions of the wall fell.  They would long since have been roasted, were it not for the cool air which flowed in through the long loophole, and keeping up a circulation in the chamber, lowered the temperature of the air within it.  At the end of the two hours Harry gave a shout.

“They are coming back.”

The light had now sunk to a quiet red glow, so that beyond the fact that a party was approaching, nothing could be seen.  They rode, however, directly toward the turret, and then, when they halted, Harry saw the figures of two ladies who were pointing toward the loophole.  Harry now stepped from the ladder on to the door and shouted at the top of his voice through the loophole.  The reply came back in a joyous shout.

“We are being roasted alive,” Harry cried.  “Get ladders as quickly as possible, with crowbars, and break down the wall.”

Men were seen to ride off in several directions instantly, and for the first time a ray of hope illumined, the minds of the prince and Harry that they might be saved.  Half an hour later long ladders tied together were placed against the wall, and Jacob speedily made his appearance at the loophole.

“All access is impossible from the other side,” he said, “for the place where the house stood is a red-hot furnace, Most of the walls have fallen.  We had no hope of finding you alive.”

“We are roasting slowly,” Harry cried.  “In Heaven’s name bring us some water.”

Soon a bottle of water was passed in through the loophole, and then three or four ladders being placed in position, the men outside began with crowbars and pickaxes to enlarge the loophole sufficiently for the prisoners to escape.  It took three hours’ hard work, at the end of which time the aperture was sufficiently wide to allow them to emerge, and utterly exhausted and feeling, as the prince said, “baked to a turn,” they made their way down the ladder, being helped on either side by the men, for they themselves were too exhausted to maintain their feet.