Be guilt and all the hideous choke of horror!
[Saul trembling at the curse lets the javelin fall from his hand. David breaking through Doeg and Ishui escapes by the door. Michal sinks to her knees, her face buried in her hands.]
[CURTAIN.]
ACT III.
SCENE: A savage mountain-cliff in the wilderness of Engeddi. On either side gray crags rise rugged, sinking away precipitously across the back. Cut into each is a cave. The height is reached by clefts from all sides.
Between the crags to the East is the far blue of the Dead Sea; and still beyond, bathed in the waning afternoon, stretch the purple shores of Moab. During the act the scene grows crimson with sunset and a thunder-cloud rises over the sea.
Lying on a pallet of skins near the cliff’s verge, DAVID tosses feverishly. Three of his followers and a lad, who serves him, are gathered toward the front, ragged, hungry, and hunted, in altercation over a barley-cake.
DAVID
Water! the fever fills me, and I thirst.