_Samuel._ Offer thy daughter, then, Michal, thy fairest, to whoever shall.
_Saul._ Demand and drain for more! without an end. Ever vexation! No; I will not.
_Samuel._ Then, Out of Jehovah and a vast foreseen I tell thee again, thou perilous proud king, The sceptre shall slip from thee to another!
_Saul._ From me! No! You rouse afar the billowing of ill. I grant--go not!--I grovel to your will, Fear it and fawn as to omnipotence,
_Samuel._ Then, Saul of Israel, the hour is near, When shall arise one, and Goliath fall!
(_Goes slowly out by the porch, Saul sinks back._)
_Ishui_ (_after a pause, keenly_). Oh,--subtle!
_Ishui._ Subtle!--subtle! And yet I must not speak; come, Adriel,
_Ishui._ Do not ask.... Yet how it creeps, and how!
_Ishui._ Do you not see it crawl, this serpent scheme? Goliath slain--the people mad with praise, Then fallen from you--Michal the victor's wife....
_Ishui._ Or else the champion slain-- Fear on the people--panic--the kingdom's ruin!
_Ishui._ And you see? Ah, then, if one arise? If one arise?
_Saul._ Death, death! If he hath touched this prophet--if Merely a little moment!--
_Ishui._ I have seen Your David with him.
_Saul._ The folds slip further; To this you lead me--hatred against David! To this with supple envy's easy glide!
_Saul._ You have but builded lies, As ever you are building and for ever. I'll hear no more against him--Abner!--no.
_Saul._ Not come? He is not come? Forever he delays!
See you, 'tis he!... 'Tis David!... And he sings!
Smiter of Hosts, Terrible Saul! Vile on the hills shall he laugh who boasts None is among Great Israel's all Fearless for Saul, King Saul!
Aye, is there none Galled of the sting, Will at the soul of Goliath run? Wring it and up To his false gods fling?... None for the king, the king?
(_He drops to his knee, amid praise, before the throne._)
_Saul_ (_darkening_). Forego this praise and stand Away from him; 'tis overmuch.
(_To_ DAVID.) Why have You dallied and delayed?
_David._ Why, my lord, I do not mock. Only the birds have wings. Yet on the vales behind me I have left Haste and a swirl, a wonderment of air, And in the torrent's troubled vein amaze, So swift I hurried hither at your urgence Out of the fields and folding the far sheep!