I
Said Abner, "At last thou art come! Ere I tell, ere thou speak, Kiss my
cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it, and did kiss his cheek. And he,
"Since the King, O my friend, for thy countenance sent, Neither drunken
nor eaten have we; nor until from his tent Thou return with the joyful
assurance the King liveth yet, Shall our lip with the honey be bright,
with the water be wet. For out of the black mid-tent's silence, a space
of three days, Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants, of prayer nor
of praise, To betoken that Saul and the Spirit have ended their strife,
And that, faint in his triumph, the monarch sinks back upon life. 10