“Home that hast watched with me, farewell! And nymphs that haunt the springs or dwell In seaward meadows, and the roar Of waves that break upon the shore; Where often, through the cavern’s mouth, The drifting of the rainy South Hath coldly drenched me as I lay; And Hermes’ hill, whence many a day, When anguish seized me, to my cry Hoarse-sounding echo made reply. O fountains of the land, and thou, Pool of the Wolf, I leave you now; Beyond all hope I leave thy strand, O Lemnos, sea-encircled land! Grant me with favoring winds to go Whither the mighty Fates command, And this dear company of friends, And mastering Powers who shape our ends To issues fairer than we know.” CHAPTER VII. It fell out that at the last Troy was taken by a stratagem. Now the stratagem was this: The Greeks made a great Horse of wood, feigning it to be a peace-offering to the gods, that they might have a safe return to their homes. In the belly of this there hid themselves certain of the bravest of the chiefs, as Menelaüs, and Ulysses, and Thoas the Ætolian, and Machaon, the great physician, and Pyrrhus, son of Achilles (but Achilles himself was dead, slain by Paris, Apollo helping, even as he was about to take the city), and others also, and with them Epeius himself. But the rest of the people made as if they had departed to their homes; only they went not further than Tenedos, which was an island near to the coast. Great joy was there in Troy when it was noised abroad that the men of Greece had departed. The gates were opened, and the people went forth to see the plain and the camp. And one said to another, as they went, “Here they set the battle in array, and there were the tents of the fierce Achilles, and there lay the ships.” And some stood and marvelled at the great peace-offering to Minerva, even the Horse of wood. And Thymœtes, who was one of the elders of the city, was the first who advised that it should be brought within the walls and set in the citadel. Now whether he gave this counsel out of a false heart, or because the gods would have it so, no man knows. But Capys, and others with him, said that it should be drowned in water, or burned with fire, or that men should pierce it and see whether there were aught within. And the people were divided, some crying one thing and some another. Then came forward the priest Laocoön, and a great company with him, crying, “What madness is this? Think ye that the men of Greece are indeed departed, or that there is any profit in their gifts? Surely, there are armed men in this mighty Horse; or haply they have made it that they may look down upon our walls. Touch it not, for as for these men of Greece, I fear them, even though they bring gifts in their hands.” And as he spake he cast his great spear at the Horse, so that it sounded again. But the gods would not that Troy should be saved.