Again, the next day, she asked him the same question. And Samson said, “If the seven locks of my hair were woven into a web, I could not get away.” And Delilah was weaving cloth upon a loom, and while Samson was asleep she wove his long hair into the web and cried again, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And straight he waked, and stood up, and pulled away the web and the loom together. Then Delilah said, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when every day you mock me and lie to me! Tell me true, what is the secret of your mighty strength?” And Samson told her true. “If they cut off my hair,” he said, “then I shall have no strength at all.” And Delilah knew that this time he had told the truth, and she called for the lords of the Philistines. “Come only this once,” she said, “and you shall have him.” And they came, and brought the silver pieces with them. And Samson slept, in the heat of the day, with his head upon Delilah’s knees. And the men came in softly and cut off the seven locks of his hair. Then Delilah cried, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And he awoke, and saw the Philistines coming, and he stretched forth his great arms, and they were like the arms of any other man. And the Philistines laid hold upon him, and put out both his eyes. So the Philistines brought Samson down to Gaza, and bound him with brass fetters, and put him in prison, and made him grind their corn. But his hair began to grow again. And at last, one day, the Philistines made a great feast in the temple of Dagon, their god. And there were crowds and crowds of people, and all the lords of the Philistines; there were people even on the roof. And they brought Samson from the prison that they might look at him, and laugh at him. And a lad led him by the hand. And by and by Samson said to the lad, “Lead me to a pillar.” Now the temple roof rested on two huge pillars, quite near together. And Samson cried to God and said, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes.” And he thrust out his great arms where he stood between the pillars, and pushed them hard with all his might, and they fell, and the roof fell with them upon the Philistines, and upon their lords, and upon Samson. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. XXIII THE BRAMBLE AND THE FIRE