(Rushes up throne.)
Murderous king, afoam with murder-heat.
Strike me to darkness and the waiting worm!
But after be your every breathing blood!
Remorse and riving bitterness and fear!
Be guilt and all the hideous choke of horror!
(Saul trembling cowers, the javelin falling from him. David breaks through Doeg and Ishui and escapes by the door. Michal sinks to her knees, her face buried in her hands.)
ACT III
Scene: A savage mountain-cliff in the wilderness of Engeddi. On either side grey 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 thundercloud arises 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.
Water!
First Fol. Listen.
Second Fol. He calls.
David. Water! I thirst.