resses of the
building, wherever it found a place of advantage; for where those birds
most breed and haunt, the air is observed to be delicate. The king
entered well-pleased with the place, and not less so with the attentions
and respect of his honoured hostess, Lady Macbeth, who had the art of
covering treacherous purposes with smiles; and could look like the
innocent flower, while she was indeed the serpent under it.

The king being tired with his journey, went early to bed, and in his
state-room two grooms of his chamber (as was the custom) slept beside
him. He had been unusually pleased with his reception, and had made
presents before he retired to his principal officers; and among the
rest, had sent a rich diamond to Lady Macbeth, greeting her by the name
of his most kind hostess.

Now was the middle of night, when over half the world nature seems dead,
and wicked dreams abuse men's minds asleep, and none but the wolf and
the murderer is abroad. This was the time when Lady Macbeth waked to
plot the murder of the king. She would not have undertaken a deed so
abhorrent to her sex, but that she feared her husband's nature, that it
was too full of the milk of human kindness, to do a contrived murder.
She knew him to be ambitious, but withal to be scrupulous, and not yet
prepared for that height of crime which commonly in the end accompanies
inordinate ambition. She had won him to consent to the murder, but she
doubted his resolution; and she feared that the natural tenderness of
his disposition (more humane than her own) would come between, and
defeat the purpose. So with her own hands armed with a dagger, she
approached the king's bed; having taken care to ply the grooms of his
chamber so with wine, that they slept intoxicated, and careless of their
charge. There lay Duncan in a sound sleep after the fatigues of his
journey, and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his
face, as he slept, which resembled her own father; and she had not the
courage to proceed.

She returned to confer with her husband. His resolution had begun to
stagger. He considered that there were strong reasons against the deed.
In the first place, he was not only a subject, but a near kinsman to the
king; and he had been his host and entertainer that day, whose duty, by
the laws of hospitality, it was to shut the door against his murderers,
not bear the knife himself. Then he considered how just and merciful a
king this Duncan had