The day was given over to merrymaking and feasting; so secure did they feel that the great gates were left unguarded and that night while they slept deeply, care free for the first time in ten years, Sinon, the spy, unlocked the hidden door of the great horse. Cautiously, Ulysses, Menelaus and their men crept out, opened the gates of the city and gave the signal to their army. Silently the ships drew up and anchored and an armed multitude poured out into the night. Spears clashed, torches flared as the Greeks went plunging through the city in a hot frenzy of triumph. King Priam and many of his followers fell by the sword. Houses were ransacked of their jewels, golden bowls taken from the altars. The city was stripped of its treasures and then burned to its foundations. Sinon with his tale of suffering and false tears had touched the hearts of the Trojans and accomplished by strategy what a thousand ships and ten years’ siege had failed to do. THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE OF THE GREEK HERO ULYSSES FROM HOMER THE LOTUS-EATERS By Sir George W. Cox Among the chiefs of the Greeks who fought before the walls of Troy, there was none who gained for himself a greater glory than Ulysses the son of Laertes. Brave he was in battle, and steadfast in danger; but most of all did the Greeks seek his aid and counsel, when great things must be weighed and fixed. In every peril where there was need of the wise heart and the ready tongue, all hastened to Ulysses, and men felt that he did more to throw down the kingdom of Priam than the mightiest chieftains who fought only with sword and spear. Yet, in the midst of all his toil and all his great exploits, the heart of Ulysses was far away in rocky Ithaca, where his wife Penelope dwelt with his young son Telemachus. Many a time, as the weary years of the war rolled on, he said within himself, “Ah, when will the strife be ended, and when shall we spread our sails to the breeze, and speed on our way homewards?” At last the doom of Paris was accomplished, and the hosts of Agamemnon gave the city of Troy to fire and sword. Then Ulysses hastened to gather his men together, that they might go to their home in Ithaca; and they dragged the ships down to the sea from the trenches where they had so long lain idle.