ttempts to
embark their troops and sail away, but that the winds and seas had
risen against them on every such attempt, and defeated their design.
They then sent to consult the oracle of Apollo, to learn what was the
cause of the displeasure and hostility thus manifested against them by
the god of the sea. The oracle replied, that they could not depart
from Troy, till they had first made an atoning and propitiatory
offering by the sacrifice of a man, such an one as Apollo himself
might designate. When this answer was returned, the whole army, as
Sinon said, was thrown into a state of consternation. No one knew but
that the fatal designation might fall on him. The leaders were,
however, earnestly determined on carrying the measure into effect.
Ulysses called upon Calchas, the priest of Apollo, to point out the
man who was to die. Calchas waited day after day, for ten days, before
the divine intimation was made to him in respect to the individual
who was to suffer. At length he said that Sinon was the destined
victim. His comrades, Sinon said, rejoicing in their own escape from
so terrible a doom, eagerly assented to the priest's decision, and
immediately made preparations for the ceremony. The altar was reared.
The victim was adorned for the sacrifice, and the garlands, according
to the accustomed usage, were bound upon his temples. He contrived,
however, he said, at the last moment, to make his escape. He broke the
bands with which he had been bound, and fled into a morass near the
shore, where he remained concealed in inaccessible thickets until the
Greeks had sailed away. He then came forth and was at length seized
and bound by the shepherds of the mountains, who found him wandering
about, in extreme destitution and misery. Sinon concluded his tale by
the most piteous lamentations, on his wretched lot. The Trojans, he
supposed, would kill him, and the Greeks, on their return to his
native land, in their anger against him for having made his escape
from them, would destroy his wife and children.

The air and manner with which Sinon told this story seemed so
sincere, and so natural and unaffected were the expressions of
wretchedness and despair with which he ended his narrative, that the
Trojan leaders had no suspicion that it was not true. Their compassion
was moved for the wretched fugitive, and they determined to spare his
life. Priam, the aged king, who was present at the scene, in the midst
of the Trojan generals,