him.  “There is none,” he cried, “that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me.”  “None of you that is sorry!” His suffering was so great, and so little was it understood, that he believed no one cared for him, and at times he said bitter things which kept men apart from him, and sent some of them to David.  His anguish was all the greater because he thought Jonathan, his son, whom he so much loved, had become estranged from him, and secretly communicated with David, and was content to give up his succession to the royal crown, and take the second place when David should be upon the throne.  But again I say it, no harsh word ever came to me, although for days he would hardly speak; and then, suddenly, as he sat by me, he would lay his head upon my neck, and tears would come of which he was ashamed.

The never-ceasing pursuit of David was sad even to me, and yet when the Spirit left him to himself Saul relented.  When David was in Engedi, and hard pressed, he came out to Saul and submitted himself to him.  He boasted that he could have slain Saul—­what a boast to make! that he had spared the Lord’s anointed and the father of Jonathan, his chosen friend!

The king was much given to sudden change.  Sometimes his mood would leave him, and his face become clear in a moment, like the heavens in a thunderstorm when the lightning has spent itself, and the wind shifts, and the blue sky in an instant is revealed.  Never, when this happened, did he resist, and by constraint remain in his sorrow, but sang and was glad, and if I was beside him, delighted himself with me.  The happiest of men would he have been, even as a king, if the Evil Spirit from the Lord would have left him.  He was overcome with his ancient love for David, and wept, and acknowledged, although it was false, that David was more righteous than he, and prayed for the Lord’s blessing upon him.  Yet even then the ever-present Fear was before him.  “I know well,” he said, “that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.”  And he made David swear that he would not cut off the seed of the royal house, so that the name of Saul might live.  And David sware:  David sware, the blaspheming liar, who gave up to the Gibeonites my sons, and the sons of Merab.  It was Jonathan, whom Saul had in mind when he caused David to swear; but Saul’s prayer was but breath, for the Lord cut off Jonathan in battle, and Saul was the only king of the house of Kish.

After Samuel’s death, David, with his men, went over to the Philistines, who gave him Ziklag as the place of his abode.  He played the traitor to Achish as he had done to Saul, and he went out against the Geshurites, the Gezrites, and the Amalekites, the friends of Achish, murdering both men and women, and returned and lied to Achish, telling him he had fought against Judah and its allies.  Had it been his