of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of
Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and
folly is with him; but I, thine handmaid, saw not the young men of my
lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming
to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let
thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. . . . I
pray thee forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will
certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles
of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days."

And she conquers. The dark shadow passes off David's soul, and he is
again the true, chivalrous, God-fearing David, who has never drawn sword
yet in his own private quarrel, but has committed his cause to God who
judgeth righteously, and will, if a man abide patiently in Him, make his
righteousness as clear as the light, and his just-dealing as the noonday.
Frankly he confesses his fault. "Blessed be thy advice, and blessed be
thou which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from
avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very deed, as the Lord God of
Israel liveth, which has kept me back from hurting thee, except thou
hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not a man been left
unto Nabal by the morning light." Then follows the end. Abigail goes
back to Nabal. Then the bully shows himself a coward. The very thought
of the danger which he has escaped is too much for him. His heart died
within him. "And Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in
his house like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within
him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing less or more
until the morning light. But it came to pass in the morning, when the
wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that
his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to
pass, about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died." One
can imagine the picture for oneself. The rich churl sitting there in the
midst of all his slaves and his wealth as one thunderstruck, helpless and
speechless, till one of those mysterious attacks, which we still rightly
call a stroke, and a visitation of God, ends him miserably. And when he
is dead, Abigail becomes th