ig8  BURNING  OF  THE  KAISERIIOF.
out  lustily  to  them  to  take  care  of  themselves,  just  as  it
was  in  the  act  of  tumbling  over.  Indeed  the  situation  of
the  firemen  was  exceedingly  perilous  on  this  account,  as
some  huge  missile  or  other  was  perpetually  descending
from  above,  and  the  height  of  the  edifice  was  so  great
that  even  a  comparatively  small  object  might  have
inflicted  fatal  injuries.  Even  the  firemen  within  the
building  were  at  times  in  considerable  danger,  when  they
thrust  their  heads  out  of  the  upper  windows  to  give
directions  to  their  fellows  in  the  street  below,  one  or  two
of  them  drawing  in  their  heads  not  a  moment  too  soon,
as  some  gigantic  missile,  large  enough  to  have  annihilated
an  elephant,  came  dashing  down  with  appalling  velocity
within  a  few  inches  of  their  skulls.  Tragical  as  the
occasion  was,  it  was  difficult  to  help  smiling  when  one  of
the  official  heads  thus  dodged,  as  it  were,  some  descending
missile.
The  efforts  of  the  firemen  seemed  to  be  wholly  futile.
At  the  same  time  it  is  only  fair  to  say  they  had  an
almost  superhuman  task  before  them,  as  the  whole  roof
being  on  fire  in  every  direction,  they  had  no  vantageground
  from  which  they  could  assault  and  drive  back  the
enemy.  It  was  a  self-evident  impossibility  that  any
human  being  could  have  lived  a  moment  in  the  midst  of
that  wild  sea  of  fire.  On  the  other  hand,  the  isolated
character  of  the  building  precluded  all  attempts  to  play
upon  it  from  the  neighbouring  houses,  which  were  all
far  too  remote  for  this  purpose.  Trinity  Church
(Dreifaltigkeits-Kirche)  was,  certainly,  at  no  great
distance  from  one  end  of  the  burning  mass,  and  it  did
appear  to  me  that  something  might  have  been  done  from
the  dome  of  this  church,  which  became  itself  so  hot  that