The story of the Trojan horse is more nearly within possibility than we
should readily suppose. In 1848, during the rebellion of the North
Italians against the Austrians, eight or nine young men, for whom the
authorities were hunting, hid themselves inside Donatello’s wooden horse
in the Salone at Padua and lay there for five days, being fed through the
trap door on the back of the horse with the connivance of the custode of
the Salone. No doubt they were let out for a time at night. When
pursuit had become less hot, their friends smuggled them away. One of
those who had been shut up was still living in 1898 and, on the occasion
of the jubilee festivities, was carried round the town in triumph.