s protection. Pursued to this
retreat by the king, he had no resource but to throw himself on the mercy
of the Philistines, and he went to Gath. When he saw himself in danger
there, he pretended to be insane; insanity being throughout the East a
protection from injury. His next step was to go to the cave Adullam, and
to collect around him a body of partisans, with whom to protect himself.
Saul watched his opportunity, and when David had left the fastnesses of
the mountain, and came into the city Keilah to defend it from the
Philistines, Saul went down with a detachment of troops to besiege him, so
that he had to fly again to the mountains. Betrayed by the Ziphites, as he
had been before betrayed by the men of Keilah, he went to another
wilderness and escaped. The king continued to pursue him whenever he could
get any tidings of his position, and again David was obliged to take
refuge among the Philistines. But throughout this whole period he never
permitted himself any hostile measures against Saul, his implacable enemy.
In this he showed great wisdom, for the result of such a course would have
been a civil war, in which part of the nation would have taken sides with
one and part with the other, and David never could have ascended the
throne with the consent of the whole people. But the consequence of his
forbearance was, that when by the death of Saul the throne became vacant,
David succeeded to it with scarcely any opposition. His subsequent course
showed always the same prudence. He disarmed his enemies by kindness and
clemency. He understood the policy of making a bridge of gold for a flying
enemy. When Abner, the most influential man of his opponents, offered to
submit to him, David received him with kindness and made him a friend. And
when Abner was treacherously killed by Joab, David publicly mourned for
him, following the bier, and weeping at the grave. The historian says
concerning this: "And all the people took notice of it and it pleased
them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people. For all the
people understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner the
son of Ner." His policy was to conciliate and unite. When Saul's son was
slain by his own servants, who thought to please David by that act, he
immediately put them to death. Equally cautious and judicious was his
course in transferring the Ark and its worship to Jerusalem. He did this
only gradually, and as he saw that the people were pre