David and Bathsheba Page #5

Tell me. Not about the killing.

Tell me about the boy you were.

It couldn't be of any interest to you.

A woman is interested in everything

about her man.

Particularly in what he was

before she knew him.

Well, there's not much to tell.

I was a shepherd

like thousands of others in Judah.

You slept out under the stars.

DAVID:

Mmm.

BATHSHEBA:

Did you dream, David?

What did you dream about?

[DAVID CHUCKLES]

Surely a man is entitled to the privacy

of his dreams.

- Then they were of women.

- Naturally.

A whole procession of them.

And every one of them

ravishingly beautiful.

I'm jealous of every one of them.

[SHEEP BLEATING]

[CLEARS THROAT]

Ah...

Uh, it's been a dry year.

The shepherds are driven early

to the wells.

Once, when I was a boy, we had a year

when even the wells went dry.

By midsummer we were slaughtering

sheep, saving only the ewe lambs.

That was the year

that I fought the wolves.

Tell me.

Well, they'd been made

desperate by hunger.

I fought them for eight hours

with my slingshot.

In the morning, six of them lay dead.

And you were only a boy.

[DAVID CHUCKLES]

Well, I was quite a hand

with the sling.

[BO Y HOOTING]

Here I'll show you.

DAVID:

May I try your sling?

That tree. Watch.

Very well,

if you think you can do better.

[THUDS]

Yes.

Well, I, uh... I lack practice.

David, did you really kill Goliath?

After seeing me with that sling,

how could you doubt me?

[BATHSHEBA LAUGHS]

Was he truly as big as they say?

Well, I will admit that he grows

a little bit bigger every year.

[LAMB BLEATING]

A new life.

[SHEEP BLEATING]

DAVID:

Oh, that's his mother.

She's caught in the brambles.

- I'll give you some help.

- Thank you, sir.

[GRUNTING]

Let's clear those hind feet.

No, use both hands.

Oh.

I'm an old soldier, sir.

Fought for the king.

- David?

SHEPHERD:
Not him.

SHEPHERD:

But the king.

King Saul.

SHEPHERD:

It was in his last battle.

There.

At the Mount of Gilboa.

SHEPHERD:

It's peaceful now.

Good grazing for the flocks,

though we lack rain this year.

But that day it rained blood.

- Yes.

- I saw the king die.

Saw him fall on his sword

when he knew the battle was lost.

Tell me, did you...

...also see the king's son die?

- Jonathan.

- Yes, sir. I did.

You see that rock that juts out

from the face of the mountain?

SHEPHERD:

The big one, with the sun on it.

Prince Jonathan stood there...

...with a loyal friend

on each side of him.

He fought there the livelong day.

His friends went down

but still he fought against tens...

...then against hundreds

until they overwhelmed him.

Those Philistines...

...and their brass

and heathenish helmets.

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