Patroclus, in the chariot led the way. Down they came at full speed on
the flank of the Trojans, who saw the leader, and knew the bright armour
and the horses of the terrible Achilles, and thought that he had returned
to the war. Then each Trojan looked round to see by what way he could
escape, and when men do that in battle they soon run by the way they have
chosen. Patroclus rushed to the ship of Protesilaus, and slew the leader
of the Trojans there, and drove them out, and quenched the fire; while
they of Troy drew back from the ships, and Aias and the other unwounded
Greek princes leaped among them, smiting with sword and spear. Well did
Hector know that the break in the battle had come again; but even so he
stood, and did what he might, while the Trojans were driven back in
disorder across the ditch, where the poles of many chariots were broken
and the horses fled loose across the plain.

The horses of Achilles cleared the ditch, and Patroclus drove them
between the Trojans and the wall of their own town, slaying many men,
and, chief of all, Sarpedon, king of the Lycians; and round the body of
Sarpedon the Trojans rallied under Hector, and the fight swayed this way
and that, and there was such a noise of spears and swords smiting shields
and helmets as when many woodcutters fell trees in a glen of the hills.
At last the Trojans gave way, and the Greeks stripped the armour from the
body of brave Sarpedon; but men say that Sleep and Death, like two winged
angels, bore his body away to his own country. Now Patroclus forgot how
Achilles had told him not to pursue the Trojans across the plain, but to
return when he had driven them from the ships. On he raced, slaying as
he went, even till he reached the foot of the wall of Troy. Thrice he
tried to climb it, but thrice he fell back.

Hector was in his chariot in the gateway, and he bade his squire lash his
horses into the war, and struck at no other man, great or small, but