BOYS OF THE BIBLE. : 199

this own royal city, over mountain and crag and fell, away
from his own son! ‘This King—whom lions and bears could
not frighten when a boy!—this King, who with sling and
-stone, overcame the giant of Gath!—running away like a
coward from Absalom!

But Absalom, as soon as he had gathered his army
together, made haste to follow after his father. Then David
counted the men who were with him, and set captains over
them; Joab, he made the chief captain. And David said, I
‘will surely go with you myself also, to the battle. But the
‘men answered, Thou shalt not go with us, for they will care
‘more to take thee, than they will to take all the rest who
‘shall go out against them. David said, Whatever seems best
to you I will do: so he stayed in the city of Mahanaim,
where he and his people had come.

And he stood by the gate of the city while his men
were going out to fight; as they passed by him, he spoke
to all the captains, saying, ‘‘Deal gently, for my sake, with
the young man, even with Absalom.”

So the people went out, and the battle was in a wood.
And God gave David’s army the victory, for they slew of
Absalom’s army twenty thousand men.

The revolt that promised so much in the morning was
turned to asad defeat before the set of sun. That battle in
the wood of Ephraim turned the tide against the young traitor
prince. In the wild confusion and dismay, Absalom rides
hither and thither amongst the dying and the dead, and
‘sweeping along under the underlacing boughs of a huge over-
hanging terebuith tree, his long, flowing hair—so long his
pride—caught in the branches. His mule swept from under
him, and there he hung, swaying between heaven and earth!

At this moment the treacherous Joab appeared with his