down the mountain from the camp, the three crossed the shoulder of the very hill on which the Philistines were entrenched, and made for Endor, which lay behind Shunem. Reaching the cave, the king told the witch the object of his coming. He longed to have one more interview with his old adviser, the prophet Samuel, and desired her by her arts to bring him up. At first the woman demurred, and pleaded the danger of exciting the wrath of the king, who in better days had distinguished himself by his zeal against all magic and sorcery. But her visitor calmed her fears. She exercised her arts, and the awful form of Samuel, _an old man, and covered with a mantle_, appeared. Bowing himself with his face to the earth, Saul made known his deep distress. _The Philistines_, said he, _make war against me: God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do_ (1 Sam. xxviii. 15). In reply the Prophet could only inform the king that the Day of Doom was near. _To-morrow_, said he, _the Lord will deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me_. This awful sentence utterly prostrated the unhappy king. He fell _with the fulness of his stature all along upon the earth_ (1 Sam. xxviii. 20, _marg._). For a day and a night he had eaten nothing, and now there was no more strength in him. With the utmost difficulty the woman and his two attendants succeeded in compelling him to partake of food, and then he rose up, once more crossed the shoulder of the hill, and reached the heights of Gilboa (1 Sam. xxviii. 21–25). The next morning broke, and the Philistines made their onset. The Israelite leader, with his doom upon him, could do little in such a crisis. His army was driven up the sides of Gilboa, and as it fled from the victorious Philistines, numbers were slain on the heights. Resolved on striking a decisive blow, the Philistine archers and charioteers followed hard after Saul and his sons. Three of the latter, including the valiant Jonathan, were slain outright, and Saul himself was sore wounded. In this extremity he implored of his armour-bearer to thrust him through with his sword, and put an end to his sufferings. But his armour-bearer refused, and Saul, taking his own sword, fell upon it and died, and the other then followed his example. The rout of the Israelites was now complete, and extended even to the tribes beyond the Jordan. Even here the Israelites fled from their cities, and _the Philistines dwelt in them_ (1 Sam. xxxi. 7).