Book 2
although a nameless stranger, cunningly
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deliver to the Greek the gates of Troy.
His firm-set mind flinched not from either goal,—
success in crime, or on swift death to fall.
The thronging Trojan youth made haste his way
from every side, all eager to see close
their captive's face, and clout with emulous scorn.
Hear now what Greek deception is, and learn
from one dark wickedness the whole. For he,
a mark for every eye, defenceless, dazed,
stood staring at our Phrygian hosts, and cried:
“Woe worth the day! What ocean or what shore
will have me now? What desperate path remains
for miserable me? Now have I lost
all foothold with the Greeks, and o'er my head
Troy's furious sons call bloody vengeance down.”
Such groans and anguish turned all rage away
and stayed our lifted hands. We bade him tell
his birth, his errand, and from whence might be
such hope of mercy for a foe in chains.
Then fearing us no more, this speech he dared:
“O King! I will confess, whate'er befall,
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the whole unvarnished truth. I will not hide
my Grecian birth. Yea, thus will I begin.
For Fortune has brought wretched Sinon low;
but never shall her cruelty impair
his honor and his truth. Perchance the name
of Palamedes, Belus' glorious son,
has come by rumor to your listening ears;
whom by false witness and conspiracy,
because his counsel was not for this war,
the Greeks condemned, though guiltless, to his death,
and now make much lament for him they slew.
I, his companion, of his kith and kin,
sent hither by my humble sire's command,
followed his arms and fortunes from my youth.
Long as his throne endured, and while he throve
in conclave with his kingly peers, we twain
some name and lustre bore; but afterward,
because that cheat Ulysses envied him
