ELISHA. 273

“some mischief will come upon us; now, therefore,
come, and we will tell the king’s household.” As they had
spoken, so they acted. They told the porter of the
city, and soon the happy news spread. The king was
at first afraid; he thought it was a stratagem on the
part of the Syrians. “ They know that we be hungry,”
he said, “ therefore are they gone out of the camp to
hide themselves in the field, saying, when they comé
out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into
the city.” One of the king’s servants proposed that
five horsemen should be sent to spy out where the Sy-
rians were. Only two horses, it seems, could be found;
but they were sent. They followed the Syrians as far
as the Jordan. All the road was strewed with garments
and vessels, which, in their haste, the affrighted Syrians
had cast away. When the king heard this, he suffered
the people to go out, and take all that was in the Syrian
camp; so flour and barley were sold at the prices that
Elisha had foretold.

Marianne. And what became of the nobleman who
did not believe the words of the prophet ?

Grandfather. The king gave him the charge of the gate
of the city, and the starving people, as they pressed out,
eager for food, trode to death the scoffing nobleman.
So he saw the plenty, but it was that very plenty which
caused his death.

Marianne. You have not told us anything about
Jehoshaphat in these wars. Is there to be nothing more
about him ?

T