Much has been made by Saul’s enemies of his hatred of David.  It came in this way.  Saul loved David, and made him a captain, and they went out together to war against the Philistines.  When they returned, the women, smitten with his pretty face—­they were always ready to go after him, and he after them—­sang aloud in the streets that Saul had slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.  The Terror was on Saul; he believed David was Samuel’s friend, and David and the Terror became one.  He eyed David from that day.  He was not blameworthy.  It was the Evil Spirit from God, and the Evil Spirit put a fixed thought in his mind, that if he could but remove David, the Terror would depart.  Although I hated the son of Jesse from the beginning, I made light of my lord’s dread of him, but who can reason against an Evil Spirit from God; and while David was playing the second time, my lord cast a javelin at him to kill him.  When the Evil Spirit departed, the desire to destroy David departed with it.  After Saul had cast the javelin, Jonathan pleaded with his father for David, and Saul listened, and swore that no harm should befall him; but when David soon afterwards returned from another battle with the Philistines, the Spirit came again and turned David’s music into an instrument of torture, and again put the javelin in Saul’s hand, and strove through Saul to strike David with it.  Hard ridden was Saul by the Spirit at that time, and he went to Ramah to see Samuel; and when he saw him, he, the king, my beloved, was so beset that he tore off his clothes, and lay down naked all night.  When he came back at the feast of the new moon, he sat down to meat with his princes, and with Abner and Jonathan; but David was not there.  He asked the reason of his absence, and Jonathan explained that David had leave to go to Bethlehem to visit his father.  Jonathan said nothing more, but the Evil Spirit descended even at the feast, in the company of all the lords, and Saul imagined that Jonathan was plotting against him; and in his fury, possessed by the Lord, he cast his spear against Jonathan also, his own best beloved son.  That was the misery of it; the Spirit brought him to violence, not only against those who were his enemies, but against those whom he loved.  To me, though, he was ever tender, and over our love the Spirit had no power.  Jonathan’s anger at the time was fierce; but Jonathan was noble of heart—­his father’s son, without his father’s affliction; and he knew, when he came to himself, that it was not the father whom he honoured who had done this deed.  He went out and warned David, but he did not go with him, and presently he returned into the city and comforted his father.  When David had gathered together his four hundred knaves in rebellion, Saul sat in Gibeah under the tree there, and his servants stood round him in council.  They were all of them valiant and faithful, but he broke out against them, and accused them of conspiring with David against