"Fresh wonder seized us, and we shook with fear.
All say, that justly had Laocoon died, And paid fit penalty, whose guilty spear Profaned the steed and pierced the sacred side.
'On with the image to its home,' they cried, 'And pray the Goddess to avert our woe'; We breach the walls, and ope the town inside.
All set to work, and to the feet below Fix wheels, and hempen ropes around the neck they throw.
XXXI.

"Mounting the walls, the monster moves along, Teeming with arms.

Boys, maidens joy around To touch the ropes, and raise the festive song.
Onward it came, smooth-sliding on the ground, And, beetling, o'er the midmost city frowned.
O native land! O Ilion, now betrayed! Blest home of deities, in war renowned! Four times beside the very gate 'twas stayed; Four times within the womb the armour clashed and brayed.
XXXII.

"But heedless, blind with frenzy, one and all Up to the sacred citadel we strain, And there the ill-omened prodigy install.
E'en then--alas! to Trojan ears in vain-- Cassandra sang, and told in utterance plain The coming doom.

We, sunk in careless joy, Poor souls! with festive garlands deck each fane, And through the town in revelry employ The day decreed our last, the dying hours of Troy! XXXIII.