You must not. A fruitless intrepidity it were. ABIATHAR Remember your anointing! ADRIEL The prophesy! [MIRIAM _enters leading_ MICHAL. _A moment’s suspense._] MERAB See! ADRIEL See! MERAB She liveth! MIRIAM David---- MICHAL [_Pleading to him._] It is I. MIRIAM The cords were cruel, hungrily sank in Her wrists and ankles. MICHAL David, look on me. DAVID My words must be alone with her--alone. ADRIEL Come, all of you--the battle. [_They go out the gate._ DAVID _stands speechless_.] MICHAL David--my lord! I ask not anything but to be heard-- Though once I would not hear. Has all of life No glow for me! DAVID Betrayers should have none. MICHAL I was a woman--the entanglement Of duty amid love we have no skill To loosen, but with passion. DAVID You too late Remember it is so. MICHAL Nobility All unbelievable it seemed that you Could innocently watt on time to tide You to the kingdom. Then forgive, I plead. DAVID But in the wilderness, your perfidy! MICHAL Doubt of it welleth thro’ your voice. No, no, To save you strove I----! DAVID Michal? MICHAL Not to betray! From Saul, my father, penitent I fled, Seeking you in Engeddi’s wild. DAVID And Phalti? MICHAL ’Twas wedding him I loathed. DAVID Say true! MICHAL This knife Unfailingly into my breast had spared Me from him, had not flight. DAVID This--this can be? [_A great joy dawning in him._] Beyond all hope is it, even as day’s Wide empery outspans our littleness. [_Goes toward her._] A tithing of thy loveliness were beauty Enough for earth. Yet it is mine, is mine? MICHAL David--forever! long as odorous Cooling o’er Lebanon shall blow, long as The swinging sapphire of the sea shall flash Up to the sun: until the soul no more Is soul, but vapor! DAVID Michal! MICHAL Evermore! [_She sinks into his arms, and there is a pause. But a sudden confusion of cries is heard and they start apart. The gate is flung back and_ ADRIEL _enters, shaken with awe. He looks from one to the other, silent_.] DAVID [_At last._] Adriel! What have you! ADRIEL Saul … is slain! MICHAL My father?