lt it of wood, fitted and carved, and with a
door so cunningly concealed that none might notice it. When it was
finished the horse looked like a prodigious idol; but it was hollow,
skillfully pierced here and there, and so spacious that a band of men
could lie hidden within and take no harm. Into this hiding-place went
Ulysses, Menelaus, and the other chiefs, fully armed, and when the door
was shut upon them, the rest of the Grecian army broke camp and went away.

[Illustration: A GREAT IMAGE OF A HORSE. THEY BUILT IT OF WOOD, FITTED AND
CARVED, AND WITH A DOOR SO CUNNINGLY CONCEALED THAT NONE MIGHT NOTICE IT.
WHEN IT WAS FINISHED THE HORSE LOOKED LIKE A PRODIGIOUS IDOL, BUT IT WAS
HOLLOW, SKILLFULLY PIERCED HERE AND THERE]

Meanwhile, in Troy, the people had seen the departure of the ships, and
the news had spread like wildfire. The great enemy had lost heart,--after
ten years of war! Part of the army had gone,--the rest were going. Already
the last of the ships had set sail, and the camp was deserted. The tents
that had whitened the plain were gone like a frost before the sun. The war
was over!

The whole city went wild with joy. Like one who has been a prisoner for
many years, it flung off all restraint, and the people rose as a single
man to test the truth of new liberty. The gates were thrown wide, and the
Trojans--men, women, and children--thronged over the plain and into the
empty camp of the enemy. There stood the Wooden Horse.

No one knew what it could be. Fearful at first, they gathered around it,
as children gather around a live horse; they marveled at its wondrous
height and girth, and were for moving it into the city as a trophy of war.

At this, one man interposed,--Laocooen, a priest of Neptune. "Take heed,
citizens," said he. "Beware of all that comes from the Greeks. Have you
fought them for ten years without learning their devices? This is some
piece of treachery."

But there was another outcry in the crowd, and at that moment certain of
the Trojans dragged forward a wretched man who wore the garments of a
Greek. He seemed the sole remnant of the Grecian army, and as such they
consented to spare his life, if he would tell them the truth.

Sinon, for this was the spy's name, said that he had been left behind by
the malice of Ulysses, and he told them that the Greeks had built the
Wooden Horse as an offering to Athene, and that they had made it so huge
in order to keep it from being moved out of t