himself with cutting a piece off his mantle.* On another occasion David,
in company with Abishai and Ahimelech the Hittite, took a lance and
a pitcher of water from the king's bedside.** The inhabitants of the
country were not all equally loyal to David's cause; those of Ziph,
whose meagre resources were taxed to support his followers, plotted to
deliver him up to the king,*** while Nabal of Maon roughly refused
him food. Abigail atoned for her husband's churlishness by a speedy
submission; she collected a supply of provisions, and brought it herself
to the wanderers. David was as much disarmed by her tact as by her
beauty, and when she was left a widow he married her. This union insured
the support of the Calebite clan, the most powerful in that part of
the country, and policy as well as gratitude no doubt suggested the
alliance.

* 1 Sam, xxiv. Thought by some writers to be of much later
date.

** 1 Sam. xxvi. 4-25.

Skirmishes were not as frequent between the king's troops and the
outlaws as we might at first be inclined to believe, but if at times
there was a truce to hostilities, they never actually ceased, and
the position became intolerable. Encamped between his kinsman and the
Philistines, David found himself unable to resist either party except by
making friends with the other. An incursion of the Philistines near Maon
saved David from the king, but when Saul had repulsed it, David had no
choice but to throw himself into the arms of Achish, King of Gath,
of whom he craved permission to settle as his vassal at Ziklag, on
condition of David's defending the frontier against the Bedawin.*

* 1 Sam. xxvii. The earlier part of this chapter (vers. 1-6) is strictly
historical. Some critics take vers. 8-12 to be of later date, and
pretend that they were inserted to show the cleverness of David, and to
deride the credulity of the King of Gath.

Saul did not deem it advisable to try and dislodge him from this
retreat. Peace having been re-established in Judah, the king turned
northward and occupied the heights which bound the plain of Jezreel to
the east; it is possible that he contemplated pushing further afield,
and rallying round him those northern tribes who had hitherto never
acknowledged his authority. He may, on the other hand, have desired
merely to lay hands on the Syrian highways, and divert to his own
profit the resources brought by the caravans which plied along them.
The Philistines, wh