agreement between them that the god should get a certain reward for
building the walls. But when the work was finished the Trojan king
refused to keep his part of the bargain. Apollo had assisted by his
powers of music. He played such tunes that he charmed even the huge
blocks of stone, so that they moved themselves into their proper places,
after Neptune had wrenched them from the mountain sides and had hewn
them into shape. Moreover, Apollo had taken care of Laomedon's numerous
flocks on Mount Ida. During the siege, Neptune, in a conversation with
Apollo before the walls of Troy, spoke of their labors in the service of
the Trojan king:

"Hast thou forgot, how, at the monarch's prayer,
We shared the lengthen'd labors of a year?
Troy walls I raised (for such were Jove's commands),
And yon proud bulwarks grew beneath my hands:
Thy task it was to feed the bellowing droves
Along fair Ida's vales and pendant groves."

POPE, _Iliad_, Book XXI.

Long before this, however, the two gods had punished Laomedon very
severely for breaking his promise. Apollo, after being restored to
heaven, sent a plague upon the city of Troy, and Neptune sent up from
the sea an enormous serpent which killed many of the people.

A great serpent from the deep,
Lifting his horrible head above their homes,
Devoured the children.

LEWIS MORRIS.