us was to
do still greater things for us. He knew that only one man could wield a
bow better than Paris,--Paris who had shot with an arrow Achilles, and
who after that had slain many of our chiefs. That man was Philoctetes.
He had come with Agamemnon's host to Troy. But Philoctetes had been
bitten by a water-snake, and the wound given him was so terrible that
none of our warriors could bear to be near him. He was left on the
Island of Lemnos and the host lost memory of him. But Odysseus
remembered, and he took ship to Lemnos and brought Philoctetes back.
With his great bow and with the arrows of Hercules that were his,
Philoctetes shot at Paris upon the wall of Troy and slew him with an
arrow.'

'And then Odysseus devised the means by which we took Priam's city at
last. He made us build a great Wooden Horse. We built it and left it
upon the plain of Troy and the Trojans wondered at it greatly. And
Odysseus had counselled us to bring our ships down to the water and to
burn our stores and make it seem in every way that we were going to
depart from Troy in weariness. This we did, and the Trojans saw the
great host sail away from before their City. But they did not know that
a company of the best of our warriors was within the hollow of the
Wooden Horse, nor did they know that we had left a spy behind to make a
signal for our return.'

'The Trojans wondered why the great Wooden Horse had been left behind.
And there were some who considered that it had been left there as an
offering to the goddess, Pallas Athene, and they thought it should be
brought within the city. Others were wiser and would have left the
Wooden Horse alone. But those who considered that it should be brought
within prevailed; and, as the Horse was too great to bring through the
gate, they flung down part of the wall that they might bring it through.
The Wooden Horse was brought within the walls and left upon the streets
of the city and the darkness of the night fell.'

[Illustration]

'Now Helen, my wife, came down to where the Wooden Horse was, and she,
suspecting there were armed men within, walked around it three times,
calling to every captain of the Greeks who might be within in his own
wife's voice. And when the sound of a voice that had not been heard for
so many years came to him each of the captains started up to answer. But
Odysseus put his hands across the mouth of each and so prevented them
from being discovered.'

'We had left a spy hi