o thee, my
lord, a house of truth, for thou, my lord, shall fight the battles of
our Lord God; and let no malice be found in thee, never in all the days
of thy life. If ever any man arise against thee or would pursue or would
hurt thee, I beseech God to keep thee. And when our Lord God hath
accomplished to thee, my lord, all that he hath spoken good of thee, and
hath constituted thee duke upon Israel, let this not be in thy thought,
ne scruple in thy heart that thou shouldest shed blood not guilty, ne be
thou not now avenged. And when our Lord God hath done well to thee, my
lord, have thou remembrance on me thine handmaid, and do well to me.

And David said to Abigail: Blessed be God of Israel that sent thee this
day to meet me, and blessed be thy speech, and blessed be thou that hast
withdrawn me from bloodshedding, and that I avenged me not on mine enemy
with mine hand, else by the living God of Israel, if thou hadst not come
unto me, there should not have blyven [been left] unto Nabal to-morn in
the morning one man. Then David received all that she brought and said
to her: Go peaceably into thine house, lo! I have heard thy voice and I
have honored thy visage; and so Abigail came unto Nabal, and David
returned into the place he came from. Nabal made a great feast in his
house, like the feast of a king, and the heart of Nabal was jocund; he
was drunken, and Abigail his wife told to him no word till on the morn,
little ne much. On the morn when Nabal had digested the wine, his wife
told him all these words. And his heart was mortified within him, and he
was dead like a stone, for the tenth day after, our Lord smote him and
he died. And when David heard that he was dead, he said: Blessed be the
good Lord that hath judged the cause of mine opprobrium from the hand of
Nabal, and hath kept me his servant from harm, and our Lord hath yielded
the malice of Nabal on his own head. Then David sent to Abigail for to
have her to his wife, and she humbled herself and said she his handmaid
was ready to wash the feet of his servants. And she arose and took with
her five maidens which went afoot by her, and she rode upon an ass, and
followed the messengers, and was made wife to David. And David also took
another wife called Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both two were his wives.

After this Saul always sought David for to slay him. And the people
called Zyphites told to Saul that David was hid in the hill of Hachilah
which was on the after