(To Michal). He who is near may prove to thee less kind.
(She goes. He leaps up the cliff.)
But staggering and wounded? breathless? torn?
The priest with bloody ephod, too, and wild?
(Watching, then springing to meet them as they reel in.)
Abiathar, up! answer!
(He brings the water-skin. They drain it fiercely.)
Has breath in.
Of terror and remorse sting in his soul!
Seek if he lives!
Founts yet in Judah!
Dead—and of tidings more calamitous.
(A pause.)
The priests who gathered sacredly at Nob,
Plotted assisting you, hath had them——
(He stands motionless.)
(David struggles for control.)
Lest unendurable this lot, I may——
Mounting o'er every oath into revenge.
Nothing of her.
As did her love.
A woman who betrays?
And judge her when earth has no mystery.
Unworthy any tremor of your veins.
And nesting doves are horrible to heaven.
I will not so believe. Your reason?
Has given her—and she will wed him, aye—
To Phalti, a new lord.
The parable of verdant spring is hushed
Ever of bloom, to prove it. Never till
Hermon is swung into the sea! until
The last void of the everlasting sky—
(Looking up, falters, breaks off, and is strangely moved.)
(Then, suddenly seeing.)
And beating against death unbuoyantly.
(The bird drops at their feet.)
(Bends to it.)
Quick, no delay. Efface all trace of us.
(Takes water-skin.)
On us is death. Open the secret chamber
Within the cave, for from the bow of Saul
Is yonder bleeding—from no other.
But how; was any here?
A leper wandering.
(Abishai hastes to cave, right, David and Abiathar listen. Noise of approach is heard.)
Inexorable!
Out of his power the sceptre!
Mercy and memory almost are dead,
And craving birth in me is fateful ire.
(They follow into the cave: but hardly have done so when, at a shout, pour in Saul and his men, bloodthirstily, from all sides, Doeg and Abner leading.)
Him to my sword and Michal with him.
(Pacing.)
(To a soldier re-entering from one cave.)
To aid him, so....
(To a soldier from the other cave.)
He is not there....
Because you deem that he shall be the king,
And treasure up reward and amnesty.
(Rushes wildly to caves in turn, then out among them.)
Away from me, he's fled and none of you
Is servant and will find and for me seize him!
From me—I'll sleep—I'll rest—and then—
(As they cringe, going.)
(Abner and Doeg remain. Saul enters cave, left.)
It came as never before—as drunkenness.
(Goes.)
So we may seek us water; (then suddenly) no, abide!
(Is held by Michal entering.)
No stones to stone you? Hence! And had I not
A brother such as thou——
(She quickly goes, then they. A space; then she returns, trembling and fearful.)
I his discomfiture and ruin!—David!
(Searches.)
(Sees Saul.)
I cannot—am not—whither shall I, whither...?
(Flees, as a scuffling is heard and David's voice.)
(Appears, withheld by Abiathar.)
Return into the cave, and ere too late!
(Merab, veiled, enters behind them.)
Have swung the burden from me as her ... Ha!
(Sees Merab; slowly recoils.)
(Motions the priest aside.)
Or longer stay. The path she came is open.
Yearning—I say it—yearning—and I will.
More all-devouring than a Moloch is
This love within me——
As sun and Sheol.
For want of you as famine-wind, a wave
In the mid-tempest, with no rest, no shore.
No, but this will I do. The Philistines,
For long at rioting within their walls,
Gather again and break toward Gilboa....
Return from hunting you and arm for battle.
But—many would that you were king.
For love of you arouse rebellion up,
Murmur about the host your heaven-call,
And lift you to the kingdom.
Your words again.
Full from her lips—and to betray her father.
(Abiathar discovers Saul.)
(A pause.)
A livid sepulchre of shame span o'er,
And night shrink to remember day had been!
(She laughs shrilly.)
Knows to the Philistines you fled—and loathes you!
Is given to the embraces of another?
(David shrinks.)
(She laughs more bitterly.)
(She goes. David lifts his hand to his brow in pain. Then Abiathar abruptly descends from Saul's cave to him.)
Then shall there be an ending—of these wounds
That wring me—of this wail
Under the deeps of me against his wrongs.
Saul, Saul!... Michal!... Oh, never-ceasing ill!
(Flings down the sword in anguish.)
Hunted you to this desert's verge?
Are Samuel—the priests, not slain? my father?
The kingdom is not in decay, and falls?
You are not prophesy's anointed one?
Seize up the sword and strike—or I myself!
(Puts them aside, takes sword, and goes to Saul's cave.)
Michal enters unseen.
(David re-enters—haggard and worn—from the cave, a piece of Saul's cloak and the sword still in his hand.... The pause is tense with emotion.)
Ah, you have slain—have slain him! Wretch! thou wretch!
And sleeping as he was!
(Rage takes him.)
And merciless! And now will kill me, too?
(Grows frenzied.)
Upon the blot of it and death and sear!
The silence and relentless burning swoon!
You are the leper, who have broken troth
And shut the cry of justice from your breast!
Who've stifled me with desolation's woe,
Who've followed still and still have me betrayed!
(Flinging the piece of Saul's cloak at her feet.)
A king who quits the kingdom, though a cloud
Of Philistines is foaming toward Gilboa;
Jeoparded leaves it, undefended, for
Pursuit of me and pitiless harrying!
A king who murders priests ...
With penitence that He has shaped the world!
Have slain? have slain him! I have slain him! Ah!
Ah, that I had thy falseness and could slay him!
That quivering and tenderness of lure.
Those eyes that hold infinity of fate,
That breathing cassia-sweet, but sorcery!
And seething in the brain as frantic wine!
I'll be no more enspelled of thee—Never!
I will not hear thee and be wound by words
Into thy wile as wide as Ashtoreth's,
Back into hope, eternity of pain!
(He goes in agony—the priest and Abishai after. Michal stands gazing tearless before her as Saul, awakened, comes slowly from the mouth of the cave down toward her.)
ACT IV
Scene: The house of Miriam, the "Witch of Endor," by Mount Gilboa—where Saul is encamped against the Philistines. It is of one story, built rectangularly about an inner court, which is dimly lighted. Under the gallery which ranges around the court are doors leading to the sleeping and other apartments; before one of these a lattice. On the left is the gate opening to the street. At the back to one side, the teraphim, or image of divination; on the other side a stairway mounts to the roof. Above is the night and vague lightning amid a moan of wind. During the act comes dawn. Forward on a divan sits Miriam alone, in blind restlessness.
(The wind passes. Adah enters from a chamber, rubbing her eyes.)
Fathoming I may feel within you. Now,
Again—you've hither fled your mistress Merab,
In fear of her?
By Saul was apprehended? Merab now
Plotteth against her—she and Doeg?
Despairing of to-morrow's battle, comes
Hither to-night to bid me lift the spirit
Of Samuel out of the dead and learn
The issue?
Many within the army urge for David,
Would cry him king, if Saul were slain?
(A knock at the gate. They start up fearful.)
Under the night and unextinguished storm?
Come you a friend?
(Throws open the gate. David enters and Abiathar cloaked.)
If it be David, speak.
Let me behold thee (her hands go over him) with my fingers' sight,
And gather in them touch of thee again!
Thy voice is as dream-dulcimers that stir
Quivering myrrh of memory and joy.
But, aie! why are you here? You have been there?
Do you not know——
O'er-tramble me than a multitude of foes.
That it is told him I who shun his ire—
Though death were easier, if dutiful—
Am come up with the Philistines to win
The kingdom. That he would slay me though I fought
For Israel!—But, Michal!—
She was not in the camp.
And you who should be never.
Swiftly away, for Saul is——
(A heavy knock at the gate.)
You would not heed—'tis Saul!
That I shall call up Samuel.
The awful dead?
The lattice yonder!
(David and Abiathar withdraw. The knocking hastier.)
You tarry!
(She lets him in, with Ishui and Adriel.)
Who of the fate-revealing dead divine.
Out of the Pit you call them!
With snaring! knowing well that Saul the king
Is woe and bitterness to all who move
With incantation.
Him I would question.
Before thy teraphim. No harm, I swear,
Shall come of it. Bid Samuel appear.
The battle! its event!
Saul! thou art Saul! the Terror!
Ready is it, the battle—but I am
Forsaken of all prophesy and dream,
Of voices and of priest and oracle,
To augur it.
(She turns to the teraphim, amid wind and pallid lightning prostrating herself.)
The troubling and the terrifying grave,
Th' immeasurable moan and melancholy
Of ways that win to Sheol—Rise! Arise!
(She waits ... Only the wind gust. Then springing up, with wide arms, and wild blind eyes.)
The name of Baal, Amon, Ashtoreth,
Dagon or all the deities that dream
In trembling temples of Idolatry,
But of Jehovah! of Jehovah! rise!
(An elemental cry is heard. Then wavering forms rise, vast, out of the earth, in continuous stream. Miriam, with a curdling shriek, sinks moaning to her knees.)