than a prince. He
had fifty men to run before his chariot when he rode, and he stood in
the city gates and talked with the men who came to see the king about
their rights. He told them that if he were ruler over the land every
man should have all that he wanted, and deceived many by a false show
of friendship.

Then he asked the king if he could go to Hebron to pay a vow to the
Lord by offering sacrifice there, and David told him to go in peace,
and he went. But he had cruelly deceived his father. He had sent
spies through all the land to persuade them to join him at Hebron and
make him king. He also took two hundred men out of Jerusalem to help
him, and one of them was David's counsellor. They had arranged to have
all the people, as soon as they heard anywhere the sound of the
trumpet, to cry,

"Absalom is king in Hebron."

Then it came to the ears of David that his people had been led away by
deceit to follow Absalom, and David, who had been fearless before
Goliath and before great armies of other nations, was afraid. His
heart was broken at the treachery of his son, and he said to his
servants,

"Arise, and let us flee; make haste and go, for fear Absalom may come
and fight against the city with the sword."

His servants were ready to fight for him, but he fled in haste over the
brook Kedron and went toward the wilderness, with all of the people of
the city with him, until there was a great multitude, and in the midst
the priests and the Levites bearing the Ark of God, but when David saw
this he said,

"Carry back the Ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the
eyes of the Lord He will bring me again. Let Him do to me as seemeth
good to Him."

So the priests and the Levites returned to the city with the Ark of God.

It was a sad procession that went over the Mount of Olives led by
David, weeping as he went, with his head covered and his feet bare.
Some enemies of the house of Saul came out and troubled him by the way,
but there was no anger in the heart of David toward any. He believed
the hand of the Lord was upon him, and he said,

"It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction."

Absalom came to Jerusalem, and while he was asking his chief counsellor
what to do, he was persuaded by a friend of David, who had stayed
behind, to wait until he had gathered a larger army before he followed
after David. This gave him time to send word to David to cross over
Jordan before Absalom sho