A remarkable parallel occurred in Saracenic history. Arrestan, in Syria, was taken in the seventh century by Abu Obeidah by a similar stratagem. He obtained leave of the governor to deposit in the citadel some old lumber which impeded his march. Twenty large boxes filled with men were carried into the castle. Abu marched off; and, while the Christians were returning thanks for the departure of the enemy, the soldiers removed the sliding bottoms of the boxes and made their way out, overpowered the sentries, surprised the great church, opened the city gates, and Abu, entering with his army, took the city without further opposition.--Ockley, History of the Saracens, i. 185 (1718).
The capture of Sark affords another parallel. Sark was in the hands of the French. A Netherlander, with one ship, asked permission to bury one of his crew in the chapel. The French consented, provided the crew came on shore wholly unarmed. This was agreed to, but the coffin was full of arms, and the crew soon equipped themselves, overpowered the French, and took the island.--Percy, Anecdotes, 249.
Swoln with hate and ire, their huge, unwieldy force
Came clustering like the Greeks out of the wooden horse.
Drayton, Polyolbion, xii. (1613).
Wooden Horse (The), Clavilēno, the wooden horse on which Don Quixote and Sancho Panza got astride to disenchant Antonomas´ia and her husband, who were shut up in the tomb of Queen Maguncia of Candaya.--Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. iii. 4, 5 (1615).
Another wooden horse was the one given by an Indian to the shah of Persia as a New Year’s gift. It had two pegs; by turning one it rose into the air, and by turning the other it descended wherever the rider wished. Prince Firouz mounted the horse, and it carried him instantaneously to Bengal.--Arabian Nights (“The Enchanted Horse”).
Reynard says that King Crampart made for the daughter of King Marcadigês a wooden horse which would go a hundred miles an hour. His son, Clamadês, mounted it, and it flew out of the window of the king’s hall, to the terror of the young prince.--Alkman, Reynard the Fox (1498). (See Cambuscan.)
Wooden Walls, ships made of wood. When Xerxes invaded Greece, the Greeks sent to ask the Delphic oracle for advice, and received the following answer (B.C. 480):--
Pallas hath urged, and Zeus, the sire of all,