“Throwing himself before all, with a great crowd at his back, Laocoon,[124] all on fire, comes running down the steep of the citadel, crying in the distance, ‘What strange madness is this, my unhappy countrymen? Think you 20 that the enemy has sailed off, or that a Danaan could ever make a present that had no treachery in it? Is this your knowledge of Ulysses? Either the Achæans are shut up and hiding in this piece of wood, or it is an engine framed against our walls, to command the houses and come down 25 on the city from above, or there is some other secret trick. Men of Troy, put no faith in the horse. Whatever it be, I fear a Greek even with a gift in his hand.’ With these words he hurled a mighty spear with all his force against the beast’s side, the jointed arch of its belly. It lodged, 30 and stood quivering; the womb shook again, and an echo and a groan rang hollow from its caverns; and, then, had but heaven’s destiny and man’s judgment been unwarped, he had led us to carry sword and havoc into the Argive lurking-place, and Troy would now be standing, 35 and thou, Priam’s tall fortress, still in being. “Meanwhile, see! some Dardan shepherds are dragging with loud shouts before the king a young man with his hands tied behind him, who had thrown himself, a stranger, across their way, to compass this very thing, and thus let the Achæans into Troy—bold of heart, and ready for either issue, either to play off his stratagem, or to meet inevitable death. From all sides, in eager curiosity, 5 the Trojan youth come streaming round, vying in their insults to the prisoner. Now then, listen, to the tale of Danaan fraud, and from one act of guilt learn what the whole nation is. There as he stood, with all eyes bent on him, bewildered, defenceless, and looked round on the 10 Phrygian bands, ’ Alas!’ he cries, ‘where is there a spot of earth or sea that will give me shelter now? or what last resource is left for a wretch like me—one who has no place among the Danaans to hide my head—while the children of Dardanus no less are in arms against me, 15 crying for bloody vengeance?’ At that piteous cry our mood was changed, and every outrage checked. We encourage him to speak—to tell us what his parentage is; what his business; what he has to rest on as a prisoner. ‘All, my lord, shall be avowed to you truly, whatever 20 be the issue. I will not deny that I am an Argive by nation; this to begin with. Nor if Fortune has made a miserable man out of Sinon, shall her base schooling make him deceiver and liar as well. If haply in talk your ears ever caught the name of Palamedes, of the house of 25 Belus, and his wide-spread renown—his, whom under false accusation, an innocent man, charged by the blackest