David and Bathsheba Page #4

...would be a moment lost.

Yet he's found only six days for you

in seven months.

The perfume of his beloved

is the stink of war.

Does he think a man was made

only for the agony of battle?

Does he call that manhood?

Has he no blood, no heart?

Now go.

And be thankful

that I am not the pharaoh.

At least I can console myself

with the thought that your modesty...

...matches your beauty.

Perhaps you would prefer

truth to modesty, sire.

Before you went away,

I used to watch you every evening...

...as you walked on your terrace...

...always at the same hour,

always alone.

- Today, I heard you had returned.

- Then you knew that I...

BATHSHEBA:
That you would be

on your terrace tonight.

Yes.

I had heard that never had the king

found a woman to please him.

I dared to hope

that I might be that woman.

Why are you telling me this now?

Why not before?

Because first...

...I had to know

what was in your heart.

If the law of Moses is to be broken,

David...

...let us break it in full understanding

of what we want from each other.

No, please. I'm not finished.

There are women you could send for

and send away again.

I am not one of them.

What do you want?

To please you.

Have I not made it plain enough

that you please me?

I'll never send you away,

if that is what you want.

Never as long as I live.

No, David.

That is not all I want.

Think not of this one night...

...but of all the days

and all the nights to come.

Think if I can give you

what you need...

...for as long as you live...

...as your wife.

But you're not free.

If I were free?

A king is not supposed

to need anything.

Only a fool would suppose that.

Well, then...

...friendship.

I had a friend once,

but I destroyed him.

The others,

who call themselves friends, I...

I never see their eyes...

...only the tops of their heads

as they bow to me.

Their hands are extended to me...

...but palms upwards, for favors.

Even my own sons.

Will I see your eyes, Bathsheba?

You will see them.

And my hand will be in yours.

That much is easy, David.

I am only a man, Bathsheba.

I need someone to understand that.

I need the kind of understanding...

...that only one human being

can give to another.

I need someone to share my heart.

The man I watched from my window

is not the king...

...but a man whose heart

is well worth the sharing.

[BLEATING]

BATHSHEBA:

Oh, David.

[DAVID LAUGHS]

No, David. The boy, he'll see us.

No matter.

Shepherd boys learn early about life.

Did you, David?

Did I what?

Learn about life early.

Before I was 12...

...I knew almost everything

there was to know about life...

...and death.

At 12, I had killed wolves.

At 13, a man.

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