mage from her holy place in Troy, her face
was turned from us. Well do I remember how the eyes of the image,
well-nigh before they had set it in the camp, blazed with wrath, and how
the salt sweat stood upon its limbs, aye, and how it thrice leapt from
the ground, shaking shield and spear. Then Calchas told us that we must
cross the seas again and seek at home fresh omens for our war. And this,
indeed, they are doing even now, and will return anon. Also the
soothsayer said, 'Meanwhile ye must make the likeness of a horse, to be
a peace-offering to Minerva. And take heed that ye make it huge of bulk,
so that the men of Troy may not receive it into their gates, nor bring
it within their walls and get safety for themselves thereby. For if,' he
said, 'the men of Troy harm this image at all, they shall surely perish;
but if they bring it into their city, then shall Asia lay siege
hereafter to the city of Pelops, and our children shall suffer the doom
which we would fain have brought on Troy.'"

These words wrought much on the men of Troy, and as they pondered on
them, lo! the gods sent another marvel to deceive them. For while
Laocoon, the priest of Neptune, was slaying a bull at the altar of his
god, there came two serpents across the sea from Tenedos, whose heads
and necks, whereon were thick manes of hair, were high above the waves,
and many scaly coils trailed behind in the waters. And when they reached
the land they still sped forward. Their eyes were red as blood and
blazed with fire and their forked tongues hissed loud for rage. Then all
the men of Troy grew pale with fear and fled away, but these turned not
aside this way or that, seeking Laocoon where he stood. And first they
wrapped themselves about his little sons, one serpent about each, and
began to devour them. And when the father would have given help to his
children, having a sword in his hand, they seized upon himself and bound
him fast with their folds. Twice they compassed him about his body, and
twice about his neck, lifting their heads far above him. And all the
while he strove to tear them away with his hands, his priest's garlands
dripping with blood. Nor did he cease to cry horribly aloud, even as a
bull bellows when after an ill stroke of the axe it flees from the
altar. But when their work was done, the two glided to the citadel of
Minerva and hid themselves beneath the feet and the shield of the
goddess. And men said one to another, "Lo! the priest