When the cloth was brought the Rakshasas began to bind it around Hanuman's tail, he grew his tail longer and longer till they had no cloth to tie it with. Then, they poured oil on the cloth and lit it. Feeling his tail catch fire, Hanuman leapt away from the court room and out into the open. He quickly reached outside the palace and jumped with his tail afire onto the rooftops of the houses in Lanka. As he landed on each rooftop, it caught fire and slowly the whole city was burning! "Jai Sri Rama! Jai Sri Rama!" shouted Hanuman, who finally reached the seaside where he dipped his tail and put out the fire. Then, with one mighty leap, he crossed the ocean and returned to King Sugriva's court.
Hanuman told Rama all that had happened. Sugriva and Rama then decided that they would gather all the monkeys and go to Lanka to get back Sita. A large army of monkeys soon set our for the seashore and upon reaching there, they set up camp. Ravana had spies living on this side of the ocean and some of them were captured by Rama's soldiers and beaten up by the monkeys.
Vibhishana, Ravana's brother, was a Rakshasa but of a very good and noble nature. He was devoted to Lord Rama. He tried to advice Ravana to return Sita so that Lanka would not be destroyed by the anger of Rama. But Ravana would not listen to him and so Vibhishana decided to leave his brother's kingdom. He bid Ravana goodbye and set out to offer himself in the service of Rama.
Rama decided to build a bridge to Lanka, so that the army could cross over the sea. All the monkeys and even the squirrels came to help build the bridge. Each stone that was dropped into the ocean had the word "Rama" written on it and as it dropped into the water, it did not sink, but floated!