with him for a present and a token of his forgiveness a young kid. But when he reached her house and asked to see her, her father came out to speak with him, and refused to admit him.

‘What! is it thou?’ he said, averting his eyes and cringing before him. ‘We thought never to see thee again. How couldst thou have forsaken my daughter within a few days of her marriage! She grieved for thee, and to console her and for her own honour’s sake, I have given her in marriage to thy friend.’

But even as he said the word, he quailed at the wrath burning in the young man’s eyes. ‘Of a truth I lament for thee,’ he continued hastily, ‘if it be that thou still lovest her. But how shall it profit us to go back upon the past? What is done, is done; and thou thyself art to blame for it. But come, now, take heart: she has a younger sister who is even more beautiful and desirable than she is. I pray thee let me bring her to thee now, and thou canst take her in marriage instead.’

Without a word Samson turned himself about and left him. His heart raged in him like a furnace, yet he shuddered as if stricken with cold. ‘What now!’ he thought. ‘How shall I avenge myself: how punish so vile a treachery? Truly there is no evil I can wreak on these treacherous and insolent Philistines that can wipe out so foul a wrong as this! By the vows that I have vowed to the Lord I will be even yet with these enemies of Israel! Mine be the day and the hour!’ And as he went his mind seethed with grief and anger.