HOW TROY WAS TAKEN. 13

find the Trojans quite their match, and the fortunes
of the warring hosts vary day by day.

On a watch-tower in Troy sits Helen the beautiful,
gazing out on the field of conflict, and naming for
old Priam, who sits beside her, the Grecian leaders
as they appear at the head of their hosts on the
plain below. On this plain meet in fierce combat
Paris the abductor and Menelaus the indignant hus-
band. Vengeance lends double weight to the spear
of the latter, and Paris is so fiercely assailed that
Venus has to come to his aid to save him from
death. Meanwhile a Trojan archer wounds Mene-
laus with an arrow, and a general battle ensues.

The conflict is a fierce one, and many warriors on
both sides are slain. Diomedes, a bold Grecian chief-
tain, is the hero of the day. Trojans fall by scores
before his mighty spear, he rages in fury from side
to side of the field, and at length meets the great
/Eneas, whose thigh he breaks with a huge stone.
But Aineas is the son of the goddess Venus, who flies
to his aid and bears him from the field. The furious
Greek daringly pursues the flying divinity, and even
succeeds in wounding the goddess of love with his
impious spear. At this sad outcome Venus, to whom
physical pain is a new sensation, flies in dismay to
Olympus, the home of the deities, and hides her
weeping face in the lap of Father Jove, while her
lady enemies taunt her with biting sarcasms. The
whole scene is an amusing example of the childish
folly of mythology.

In the next scene a new hero appears upon the
field, Hector, the warlike son of Priam, and next to

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