whereof Agamemnon, as general, having first chosen, for his part, a captive woman, and Achilles, in the second place, chosen for himself another, then Ajax, Ulysses, and so the rest of the chief captains in order. When the soothsayer Calchas had willed that Agamemnon's woman should be restored to her father, Apollo's priest, that so the pestilence might cease; then did Agamemnon greatly rage, and say, that he alone would not lose his part of the spoil, but would either take that which had been given to Achilles, or that which had fallen to Ajax, or to Ulysses. Hereupon Achilles defied him, but was fain to suffer all patiently, as not able to hold his concubine by strong hand, nor to revenge her loss, otherwise than by refusing to fight, or to send forth his companies. But the Greeks, encouraged by their captains, presented themselves before the city without him and his troops.

The Trojans were now relieved with great succours, all the neighbour countries having sent them aid; partly drawn to that war by their commanders, who assisted Priamus for money, wherewith he abounded when the war began, (as appears by his words in Homer,) or for love of himself and his sons, or hope of marriage with some of his many and fair daughters; partly also (as we may well guess) incited by the wrongs received of the Greeks, when they wasted the countries adjoining unto Troy; so that when Hector issued out of the town, he was little inferior to his enemies in numbers of men, or quality of their leaders. The principal captains in the Trojan army, were Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus, and the other sons of Priamus; Æneas, Antenor, and his sons Polydamus, Sarpedon, Glaucus, Asius; and the sons of Panthus, besides Rhesus, who was slain the first night of his arrival; Memnon; queen Penthesilea, and others, who came towards the end of the war. Between these and the Greeks were many battles fought; the greatest of which were, that at

the tomb of king Ilus upon the plain, and another at the very trenches of the camp, wherein Hector brake through the fortifications of the Greeks, and began to fire their ships; at which time Ajax, the şon of Telamon, with his brother Teucer, were in a manner the only men of note, that, remaining unwounded, made head against Hector, when the state of the Greeks was almost desperate.

Another battle (for so antiquity calls it) or rather the same renewed, was fought by Patroclus, who having obtained leave, drew forth Achilles's troops, relieving the weary Greeks with a fresh supply. Agamemnon, Diomedes, Ulysses, and the rest of the princes, though sore wounded, yet were driven to put on armour, and with help of Patroclus, repelled the Trojans very hardly. For in that fight Patroclus was lost, and his body, with much contention, recovered by his friends, was brought back into the camp; the armour of Achilles, which he had put on, being torn from him by Hector. It was the manner of those wars, having slain a man, to strip him, and hale away his body, not restoring it without ransom, if he were one of mark. Of the vulgar, little reckoning was made; for they fought all on foot, slightly armed, and commonly followed the success of their captains, who rode not upon horses, but in chariots, drawn by two or three horses, which were guided by some trusty followers of theirs, which drove up and down the field, as they were directed by the captains, who, by the swiftness of their horses, presenting themselves where need required, threw first their javelins, and then alighting fought on foot. with swords and battle-axes, retiring into the ranks of the footmen, or else returning to their chariots when they found cause, and so began again with a new dart, as they could get it, if their old were lost and broken. Their arms defensive, were helmets, breast-plates, boots of brass, or other metal, and shields, commonly of leather, plated over. The of

fensive, were swords and battle-axes, at hand; and stones, arrows, or darts, when they fought at any dis tance. The use of their chariots, (besides their swiftness,) was to keep them from weariness, whereto the leaders were much subject, because of their armour, which the strongest and stoutest wore heaviest; also, that from them they might throw their javelins downwards with the more violence. Of which weapon, I find not that any carried more than one or two into the field; wherefore they were often driven to return to their tents for a new one, when the old was gone. Likewise of armours they had little change or none; every man, (speaking of the chief,) carried his own complete, of which, if any piece were lost or broken, he was driven to repair it with the like, if he had any fitting, taken from some captain whom he had slain and stripped; or else to borrow of them that had by such means gotten some to spare. Whereas, therefore, Achilles had lost his armour, which Hector, (as is said before,) had taken from the body of Patroclus, he was fain to await the making of new, ere he could enter the fight; whereof he became very desirous, that he might revenge the death of Patroclus, his dear friend.

At this time Agamemnon reconciled himself unto Achilles, not only restoring his concubine Briseis, but giving him very great gifts, and excusing former matters, as well as he might. In the next battle, Achilles did so behave himself, that he did not only put the Trojans to the worst, but also slew the valiant Hector, whom, (if Homer may herein be believed,) he chaced three times about the walls of Troy. But great question may be made of Homer's truth in this narration. For it is not likely that Hector would stay alone without the city, (as Homer doth report of him,) when all the Trojans were fled into it; nor that he could leap over the rivers of Xanthus and Simois, as he must have done in that flight; nor that the Trojans, perceiving Hector in

such an extremity, would have forborne to open some of their gates, and let him in. But this is reported only to grace Achilles, who having, (by what means. soever,) slain the noble Hector, did not only carry away his dead body, as the custom then was, but boring holes in his feet, and thrusting leathern thongs into them, tied him to his chariot, and dragged him shamefully about the field, selling his dead body to his father Priamus, for a very great ransom. But his cruelty and covetousness were not long unrevenged; for he was shortly after slain with an arrow by Paris, as Homer says, in the Scæan gate; or, as others, in the temple of Apollo, whither he came to have married Polyxena, the daughter of Priamus, with whom he was too far in love, having slain so many of her brethren; and his body was ransomed, (as Lycophron saith,) at the self-same rate that Hector's was by him sold for. Not long after this, Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, arrived at Troy; who, after some proof given of her valour, was slain by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.

SECT. V.

Of the taking of Troy; the wooden horse; the book of Dares and Dictys; the colonies of the relics of Troy.

FINALLY, after the death of many worthy persons on each side, the city was taken by night, as all writers agree but whether by the treason of Æneas and Antenor, or by a wooden horse, as the poets, and common fame, (which followed the poets,) have delivered, it is uncertain. Some write, that upon one of the gates of Troy, called Scæa, was the image of a horse, and that the Greeks, entering by that gate, gave occasion to the report, that the city was taken by an artificial horse. It may well be, that with some wooden engine, which they called a horse, they either did batter the walls, as the Romans in after..

times used to do with the ram; or scaled the walls upon the sudden, and so took the city. As for the hiding of men in the hollow body of a wooden horse, it had been a desperate adventure, and serving to no purpose. For either the Trojans might have perceiv ed the deceit, and slain all those princes of Greece that were enclosed in it, (which also, by such as maintain this report, they are said to have thought upon,) or they might have left it a few days without; (for it was unlikely that they should, the very first day, both conclude upon the bringing it into the town, and break down their walls upon the sudden to do it ;) by which means, they who were shut into it must have perished for hunger, if they had not, by issuing forth unseasonably, discovered the inven tion. Whereas, further, it is said, that this horse was so high and great, that it could not be brought into the town through any of the gates, and that, therefore, the Trojans were fain to pull down a part of their wall, to make way for it, through which breach the Greeks did afterwards enter; it is hereby manifest, that the enclosing of so many principal men was altogether needless, considering that, without their help, there was way sufficient for the army; so that the surprising of any gate by them, was now to no purpose.

John Baptista Gramay, in his history of Asia, discoursing of this war, saith, that the Greeks did both batter the wall with a wooden engine, and were also let into the city by Antenor, at the Scæan gate; the townsmen sleeping or drinking without fear or care,. because the fleet of the Grecians had hoisted sail, and was gone the day before to the Isle of Tenedos, thereby to bring the Trojans into security. That the city was betrayed, the books of Dares and Dictys must prove; which whether we now have the same that were by them written, it may be suspected; for surely they, who have made mention of these writers in ancient times, would not, as they did, have fol