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The exertion began to look like an exercise in futility when suddenly the gate dropped off one hinge Odysseus urged his crew inside the ra and lending his muscle to the thrust The warriors hurled the beak into the stubborn door with every ounce of strength they possessed

At first the door seemed unconquerable, but then the Achaeans held their breath as it sagged on its reflat on the stone pave thump

Like fa like h the streets The frustration flowing in their breasts fro but the death of their comrades, spilled over in a blood lust of ferocity No one was safe fro left and right, killing thethe woht

The beautiful Cassandra ran inside the teuards But the warrior Ajax felt no suchHe assaulted Cassandra beneath the statue of the teoddess Later, in a fit of remorse, he threw himself on his sword and died

The warriors of Iliu from their beds, muddled and confused because they were drunk ine, they put up a feeble resistance and were slaughtered where they stood None could withstand the vicious onslaught Nothing could hold back the wave of destruction The streets ran criht and fell, dying wretchedly, gasping their final breaths as death shrouded them Few died before se

eing their ho led off by their conquerors, hearing the screa with the howls of a thousand city dogs

King Priauards were murdered mercilessly

His wife, Hecuba, was carried off into a life of slavery The palace was looted of its treasures, the gold stripped froilded furniture were all seized before flanificent interior

No Achaean held a spear or sword that was not stained with blood It was as if a pack of wolves ran a a herd of sheep in a pen Old hter They were slain as if they were rabbits, too frightened to move or too infirm to flee

One by one the Dardanian hero warriors of the war fell slain until there was none left to wield a spear against the blood-crazed Achaeans In the burning hohting to protect their possessions and loved ones

Allies of the Dardanians--the Thracians, Lycians, Ciconians and Mysians--fought bravely, but were quickly overwhelht with Iliu many of the hated invader before they too were overpowered and annihilated

Every hoilded the sky as the Achaeans went about their orgy of self-indulgence, plundering and killing The horrible spectacle never seemed to end

Finally the Achaeans, weary fro city, carrying their loot and prodding their enslaved hurief for lost husbands and wailing pitifully as they were led away, shepherded their terrified children toward the fleet, knowing they were facing a dreaded future of slavery in foreign Achaean lands It was the way of the brutal age in which they lived and though it was abhorred they would eventually come to accept their fate So their children and living long and fruitful lives So what happened to their children

Behind the retreating army the horror did not die with those killed by the sword Many of those who had been spared the slaughter were dying in burning ho low of the fire lare stained clouds that were drifting in fro sparks and ashes It was an atrocity that would be repeated h the centuries

Hundreds were fortunate to have escaped the death and destruction by fleeing inland into the nearby forests, where they hid until the Achaean fleet had disappeared over the northeastern horizon whence they had coreat citadel city, only to find thewith the sickening stench of burned flesh