_Æneas relates how the city of Troy was taken, after a ten years' siege, by the treachery of Sinon, and the stratagem of a wooden horse. He declares the fixed resolution he had taken not to survive the ruin of his country, and the various adventures he met with in the defence of it. At last, having been before advised by Hector's ghost, and now by the appearance of his mother Venus, he is prevailed upon to leave the town, and settle his household gods in another country. In order to do this, he carries off his father on his shoulders, and leads his little son by the hand, his wife following him behind. When he comes to the place appointed for the general rendezvous, he finds a great confluence of people, but misses his wife, whose ghost afterwards appears to him, and tells him the land which was designed for him._[100] All were attentive to the godlike man, When from his lofty couch he thus began:-- "Great queen, what you command me to relate, Renews the sad remembrance of our fate: An empire from its old foundations rent, And every woe the Trojans underwent; A peopled city made a desert place; All that I saw, and part of which I was; Not even the hardest of our foes could hear, Nor stern Ulysses tell, without a tear. And now the latter watch of wasting night, And setting stars, to kindly rest invite. But, since you take such interest in our woe, And Troy's disastrous end desire to know, I will restrain my tears, and briefly tell What in our last and fatal night befell. By destiny compelled, and in despair, The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war, And, by Minerva's aid, a fabric reared, Which like a steed of monstrous height appeared: The sides were planked with pine: they feigned it made For their return, and this the vow they paid. Thus they pretend, but in the hollow side, Selected numbers of their soldiers hide: With inward arms the dire machine they load, And iron bowels stuff the dark abode. In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, an isle (While Fortune did on Priam's empire smile) Renowned for wealth; but, since, a faithless bay, Where ships exposed to wind and weather lay. There was their fleet concealed. We thought, for Greece Their sails were hoisted, and our fears release. The Trojans, cooped within their walls so long, Unbar their gates, and issue in a throng, Like swarming bees, and with delight survey The camp deserted, where the Grecians lay: The quarters of the several chiefs they showed-- } Here Phœnix, here Achilles, made abode; } Here joined the battles; there the navy rode. } Part on the pile their wondering eyes employ-- The pile by Pallas raised to ruin Troy. Thymœtes first ('tis doubtful whether hired, Or so the Trojan destiny required) Moved, that the ramparts might be broken down, To lodge the monster fabric in the town. But Capys, and the rest of sounder mind,