No one can tell just what might have happened, there and then, had not
a company of the royal guard, in answer to Amaziah's note to the king,
rushed upon the crowd and dispersed it "in the name of the king."

"In the name of the king," also, the leader of a small detachment of
the guard made his way to Amos and placed him under arrest. Amos might
have been successful in getting away, had he resisted; but, being a
law-abiding man, he submitted to the authorities, and, long before the
scattered crowd was aware of what had happened to the Prophet, he was
whirled away in a chariot to the palace of the king.




CHAPTER VI.

_The Prophet in Tekoah._


King Jeroboam II was now an old man. The vehemence and determination
and aggressiveness that had made him a far-famed conqueror had been
mellowed by the years and rarely, if ever, showed themselves.

The note he received from Amaziah regarding Amos, however, awoke the
old spirit in him. The dispatch of the section of the royal guard with
orders for the Prophet's immediate arrest was in line with the way
Jeroboam did things during the days when he personally led his armies.

But instead of having Amos put in chains and thrown into a dungeon,