Poor, that I should have tears! Fury were better, tempest! O weak eyes, When ’tis my father, and with Samuel You creep to steal his kingdom! DAVID Michal!… God! MICHAL Yes, steal it! DAVID Cruel! fell accusal! Yes, Utterly false and full of wounding! [_Struggling, then with control._] Yet, Forgive that even when thy arrows drive Deeper than all the skill of time can draw, I spare thee not the furrowed face of pain.… Delirious wings of hope that fluttered up, At last to fall! [_Moves to go._] MICHAL David! DAVID Farewell! MICHAL … You must not! DAVID Peace to you--peace and joy! MICHAL You must not go! [_He turns. She sways, then reaches out her arms. As irresistibly they move toward each other_, DOEG _and_ MERAB _appear through the curtains_. MICHAL _utters a low cry_. _They vanish._] MICHAL [_In numb affright_] Merab and Doeg! DAVID Yet what matter, now! Were it the driven night-unshrouded dead! Under the firmament is but one need, That you will understand! MICHAL But Merab! ah, She’s cunning, cold and cruel, and she loves thee; Hath told her love to Ahinoam the queen! And Doeg hates thee--since for me he’s mad! DAVID Be it, his hate, as wild, as wide as winds That gather up the desert for their blast, Be it as Sheol deep, stronger than stars That fling fate on us, and I care not, care not, If I am trusted and to Michal truth! Hear, hear me! for the kingdom, tho ’t may come, I yearn not, but for you! MICHAL No, no! DAVID For you! Since I a shepherd o’er a wild of hills First beheld you the daughter of the king Amid his servants, leaning, still with noon, Beautiful under a tamarisk, until All beauty else is dead-- MICHAL Ah cease! DAVID Since then, I have been wonder ecstasy and dream! The molded light and fragrant miracle, Body of you and soul, lifted me till When you departed-- MICHAL No, you rend me! DAVID I Fell thro’ infinity of void! MICHAL No more! DAVID Then came the prophet Samuel with anointing! My hope sprung as the sun! MICHAL I must not hear! DAVID Then was I called to play before the king. Here in this hall where cherubim shine out, Where the night silence-- MICHAL