reward was paid to the owner of the ground on which it was discovered;
drawings and casts of it, without number, have been made; and the
original stands in the Vatican now, an object of universal interest,
as one of the most celebrated sculptures of ancient or modern times.

Laocoon himself forms the center of the group, with the serpents
twined around him, while he struggles, with a fearful expression of
terror and anguish in his countenance, in the vain attempt to release
himself from their hold. One of the serpents has bitten one of the
boys in the side, and the wounded child sinks under the effects of
the poison. The other boy, in an agony of terror, is struggling,
hopelessly, to release his foot from the convolutions with which one
of the serpents has encircled it. The expression of the whole group is
exciting and painful, and yet notwithstanding this, there is combined
with it a certain mysterious grace and beauty which charms every eye,
and makes the composition the wonder of mankind.

But to return to the story. The people understood this awful
visitation to be the judgment of heaven against Laocoon for his
sacrilegious presumption in daring to thrust his spear into the side
of the image before them, and which they were now very sure they were
to consider as something supernatural and divine. They determined with
one accord to take it into the city.

They immediately began to make preparations for the transportation of
it. They raised it from the ground, and fitted to the feet some sort
of machinery of wheels or rollers, suitable to the nature of the
ground, and strong enough to bear the weight of the colossal mass.
They attached long ropes to the neck of the image, and extended them
forward upon the ground, and then brought up large companies of
citizens and soldiers to man them. They arranged a procession,
consisting of the generals of the army, and of the great civil
dignitaries of the state; and in addition to these were groups of
singing boys and girls, adorned with wreaths and garlands, who were
appointed to chant sacred hymns to solemnize the occasion. They
widened the access to the city, too, by tearing down a portion of the
wall so as to open a sufficient space to enable the monster to get in.
When all was ready the ropes were manned, the signal was given, the
ponderous mass began to move, and though it encountered in its
progress many difficulties, obstructions, and delays, in due time it
was safel