Page:Fables by La Fontaine translated by Elizur Wright.djvu/106

 36 THE FABLES OF LA FONTAINE. From one whose work, all told, no more is Than half a dozen baby stories ! ' ^ Would you a theme more credible, my cen- sors, In graver tone, and style which now and then soars ? Then list ! For ten long years the men of Troy, By means that only heroes can employ, Had held the allied hosts of Greece at bay ; Their minings, batterings, stormings day by day, Their hundred battles on the crimson plain, Their blood of thousand heroes, all in vain, — When, by Minerva's art, a horse of wood Of lofty size, before their city stood. Whose flanks immense the sage Ulysses hold, Brave Diomed, and Ajax fierce and bold, Whom, with their Myrmidons, the huge machine Would bear within the fated town unseen, To WTeak upon its very gods their rage, — Unheard-of stratagem, in any age. Which well its crafty authors did repay. . . 'Your period excites alarm Lest you should do your lungs some harm ; And then your monstrous wooden horse, With squadrons in it at their ease. Is even harder to indorse Than Renard cheating Raven of his cheese.
 * Enough, enough,* our critic folks will say ;