All else was burned with fire; and throughout that night the skies above the desert were red with the flames of their destruction.

When the troops of Israel had returned from the pursuit, Saul, with his rich booty in cattle and kind and with King Agag in his train, returned into Canaan and marched to Carmel. There he set up a pillar of stone as a trophy and memorial of his great victory, and thence he went to Gilgal.

That night the word of the Lord came to Samuel in a vision as he lay sleeping upon his bed. In the silence of dream the divine call troubled him: ‘It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king over my people Israel. He hath rejected me, and hath not obeyed my commandment.’

Samuel awoke, and that night slept no more. He was grieved to the soul for Saul, and angered against the Lord, and throughout the long dark hours until daybreak he prayed without ceasing, interceding for one whom he loved so dearly. Early next morning he set out on his journey to the king. He had been told by men of Ramah, disbanded from the army after the defeat of the Amalekites, who were returning home, that Saul had tarried awhile at Carmel, had there set up a trophy and was now with his troops at Gilgal.

Samuel continued on his way, heavy at heart, but with all speed. He came to Gilgal and, mounted on his ass, made his way through the thronging camp to the king’s tent. He dismissed the one servant that was with him, passed by the guard, and alone and unannounced entered into the tent and stood before Saul.

The floor of the tent was heaped up with the most precious of the booty that had been captured from Amalek. Saul himself with the officers who were in attendance upon him sat in splendour. A great feast had been prepared that day, and he himself was about to appear before the army drawn up in readiness to receive him at the sacred circle of stones where he had been proclaimed king.

At Samuel’s entry he rose hastily. His mind misgave him at sight of the old man’s face, cold and austere, from which every token of tenderness and affection was gone. But having dismissed those who were with him, he greeted him as if all were well between them.

‘Blessed be thou of the Lord,’ he said. ‘Thou hast come at a fair and prosperous moment, for I have done all that thou wouldst have me do, according to the will of Jehovah.’

He seated himself again and invited Samuel to sit beside him. But even as he spoke, he turned away his head, unable to meet the grief and anger in Samuel’s eyes.

The prophet stood unmoved before him. ‘If thou hast done all that I bade thee do,’ he said, ‘what means this bleating of sheep in my ears, and this lowing of oxen in the camp of Israel?’

‘These sheep, these oxen?’ said Saul. ‘They are the spoil taken by the armies of Israel from the Amalekites. They spared only the choicest of their flocks and herds wherewith to make sacrifice to the Lord thy God. All that remained of the booty I have utterly destroyed.’

But his voice rang false even in his own ears. He raised his hand as if to continue speaking, but Samuel broke in upon him.

‘Stay,’ he said, ‘and I will tell thee what the Lord himself said to me this night that is gone.’

With set face Saul sat confronting him. ‘Say on,’ he said.

Then said Samuel: ‘When thou wast a man of nought, who chose thee to be chieftain of all Israel, head and sovereign of the tribes? Was it not the Lord himself who anointed thee? And did he not of late send thee on thy way in the glory of his service to lead Israel against the accursed and idolatrous Amalekites, that again and again have afflicted his people? “Go,” he said, “spare not, but destroy them utterly and