t of them
saluted Macbeth with the title of thane of Glamis. The general was
not a little startled to find himself known by such creatures; but
how much more, when the second of them followed up that salute by
giving him the title of thane of Cawdor, to which honour he had no
pretensions! and again the third bid him "All hail! king that shall be
hereafter!" Such a prophetic greeting might well amaze him, who knew
that while the king's sons lived he could not hope to succeed to the
throne. Then turning to Banquo, they pronounced him, in a sort of
riddling terms, to be _lesser than Macbeth and greater! not so happy,
but much happier!_ and prophesied that though he should never reign,
yet his sons after him should be kings in Scotland. They then turned
into air, and vanished: by which the generals knew them to be the
weird sisters, or witches.

While they stood pondering on the strangeness of this adventure,
there arrived certain messengers from the king, who were empowered by
him to confer upon Macbeth the dignity of thane of Cawdor. An event
so miraculously corresponding with the prediction of the witches
astonished Macbeth, and he stood wrapt in amazement, unable to make
reply to the messengers: and in that point of time swelling hopes
arose in his mind, that the prediction of the third witch might in
like manner have its accomplishment, and that he should one day reign
king in Scotland.

Turning to Banquo, he said, "Do you not hope that your children shall
be kings, when what the witches promised to me has so wonderfully come
to pass?" "That hope," answered the general, "might enkindle you to
aim at the throne; but oftentimes these ministers of darkness tell
us truths in little things, to betray us into deeds of greatest
consequence."

But the wicked suggestions of the witches had sunk too deep into the
mind of Macbeth, to allow him to attend to the warnings of the good
Banquo. From that time he bent all his thoughts how to compass the
crown of Scotland.

Macbeth had a wife, to whom he communicated the strange prediction
of the weird sisters, and its partial accomplishment. She was a bad
ambitious woman, and so as her husband and herself could arrive at
greatness, she cared not much by what means. She spurred on the
reluctant purpose of Macbeth, who felt compunction at the thoughts of
blood, and did not cease to represent the murder of the king as a step
absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of the flattering pr