348 THE KING'S MIRROR 



in festive raiment; and that all the people rejoiced in 

 the news as on a merry holiday. When Adonijah heard 

 this report, great terror came upon him and all those 

 who were with him in this conspiracy, and they fled 

 every man to his house. But Adonijah fled to the taber- 

 nacle of the Lord and laid his hand upon the sacred 

 altar, as if taking vows of chastity and service in God's 

 holy tabernacle. Thereupon he sent a man to the king, 

 saying: " Here shall I die, unless my lord King Solomon 

 will promise and assure me that he will not slay me, his 

 servant, for the evil that I have done." Then King 

 Solomon replied: " Adonijah is my brother by kinship; 

 therefore I will gladly spare him, if he will show true 

 repentance for stirring up treason and rebellion against 

 his father David; and I will bear this burden with him 

 before God on the condition that he must always con- 

 tinue loyal, humble, and free from deceit. But if any 

 treasonable ambitions be found in him, he may expect 

 a swift revenge to come upon his head. Let him now go 

 home to his possessions and enjoy them as long as he 

 keeps what is now decreed." * 



When the hour of David's death was approaching, 

 Solomon frequently visited his father; and when the 

 king had departed this life, he mourned for him many 

 days, he and all the lords in the kingdom; and he buried 

 him with every form of royal pomp and at a vast out- 

 lay. But after David's death, Adonijah begged Bath- 

 sheba the queen to ask King Solomon to give him 

 Abishag to wife. The facts respecting Abishag were 

 these: when King David grew old, chills entered into 



* Cf. I Kings, i, 41-53. 



