Scotland, was
awaiting them.

While they were crossing a lonely heath, they saw three bearded women,
sisters, hand in hand, withered in appearance and wild in their attire.

"Speak, who are you?" demanded Macbeth.

"Hail, Macbeth, chieftain of Glamis," said the first woman.

"Hail, Macbeth, chieftain of Cawdor," said the second woman.

"Hail, Macbeth, King that is to be," said the third woman.

Then Banquo asked, "What of me?" and the third woman replied, "Thou
shalt be the father of kings."

"Tell me more," said Macbeth. "By my father's death I am chieftain of
Glamis, but the chieftain of Cawdor lives, and the King lives, and his
children live. Speak, I charge you!"

The women replied only by vanishing, as though suddenly mixed with the
air.

Banquo and Macbeth knew then that they had been addressed by witches,
and were discussing their prophecies when two nobles approached. One of
them thanked Macbeth, in the King's name, for his military services, and
the other said, "He bade me call you chieftain of Cawdor."

Macbeth then learned that the man who had yesterday borne that title
was to die for treason, and he could not help thinking, "The third witch
called me, 'King that is to be.'"

"Banquo," he said, "you see that the witches spoke truth concerning me.
Do you not believe, therefore, that your child and grandchild will be
kings?"

Banquo frowned. Duncan had two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, and he
deemed it disloyal to hope that his son Fleance should rule Scotland.
He told Macbeth that the witches might have intended to tempt them
both into villainy by their prophecies concerning the throne. Macbeth,
however, thought the prophecy that he should be King too pleasant to
keep to himself, and he mentioned it to his wife in a letter.

Lady Macbeth was the grand-daughter of a King of Scotland who had died
in defending his crown against the King who preceded Duncan, and by
whose order her only brother was slain. To her, Duncan was a reminder
of bitter wrongs. Her husband had royal blood in his veins, and when she
read his letter, she was determined that he should be King.

When a messenger arrived to inform her that Duncan would pass a night in
Macbeth's castle, she nerved herself for a very base action.

She told Macbeth almost as soon as she saw him that Duncan must spend
a sunless morrow. She meant that Duncan must die, and that the dead are
blind. "We will speak further," said Macbeth uneasily, and a