he camp, since it was
destined to bring triumph to its possessors.

At this the joy of the Trojans was redoubled, and they set their wits to
find out how they might soonest drag the great horse across the plain and
into the city to insure victory. While they stood talking, two immense
serpents rose out of the sea and made towards the camp. Some of the people
took flight, others were transfixed with terror; but all, near and far,
watched this new omen. Rearing their crests, the sea-serpents crossed the
shore, swift, shining, terrible as a risen water-flood that descends upon
a helpless little town. Straight through the crowd they swept, and seized
the priest Laocooen where he stood, with his two sons, and wrapped them all
round and round in fearful coils. There was no chance of escape. Father
and sons perished together; and when the monsters had devoured the three
men, into the sea they slipped again, leaving no trace of the horror.

The terrified Trojans saw an omen in this. To their minds punishment had
come upon Laocooen for his words against the Wooden Horse. Surely, it was
sacred to the Gods; he had spoken blasphemy, and had perished before their
eyes. They flung his warning to the winds. They wreathed the horse with
garlands, amid great acclaim; and then, all lending a hand, they dragged
it, little by little, out of the camp and into the city of Troy. With the
close of that victorious day, they gave up every memory of danger and made
merry after ten years of privation.

That very night Sinon the spy opened the hidden door of the Wooden Horse,
and in the darkness, Ulysses, Menelaus, and the other chiefs who had lain
hidden there crept out and gave the signal to the Grecian army. For, under
cover of night, those ships that had been moored behind the island had
sailed back again, and the Greeks were come upon Troy.

Not a Trojan was on guard. The whole city was at feast when the enemy rose
in its midst, and the warning of Laocooen was fulfilled.

Priam and his warriors fell by the sword, and their kingdom was plundered
of all its fair possessions, women and children and treasure. Last of all,
the city itself was burned to its very foundations.

Homeward sailed the Greeks, taking as royal captives poor Cassandra and
Andromache and many another Trojan. And home at last went fair Helen, the
cause of all this sorrow, eager to be forgiven by her husband, King
Menelaus. For she had awakened from the enchantment of Venus