been, how clear of offence to his subjects, how
loving to his nobility, and in particular to him; that such kings are
the peculiar care of Heaven, and their subjects doubly bound to revenge
their deaths. Besides, by the favours of the king, Macbeth stood high in
the opinion of all sorts of men, and how would those honours be stained
by the reputation of so foul a murder!

In these conflicts of the mind Lady Macbeth found her husband inclining
to the better part, and resolving to proceed no further. But she being a
woman not easily shaken from her evil purpose, began to pour in at his
ears words which infused a portion of her own spirit into his mind,
assigning reason upon reason why he should not shrink from what he had
undertaken; how easy the deed was; how soon it would be over; and how
the action of one short night would give to all their nights and days to
come sovereign sway and royalty! Then she threw contempt on his change
of purpose, and accused him of fickleness and cowardice; and declared
that she had given suck, and knew how tender it was to love the babe
that milked her; but she would, while it was smiling in her face, have
plucked it from her breast, and dashed its brains out, if she had so
sworn to do it, as he had sworn to perform that murder. Then she added,
how practicable it was to lay the guilt of the deed upon the drunken
sleepy grooms. And with the valour of her tongue she so chastised his
sluggish resolutions, that he once more summoned up courage to the
bloody business.

So, taking the dagger in his hand, he softly stole in the dark to the
room where Duncan lay; and as he went, he thought he saw another dagger
in the air, with the handle towards him, and on the blade and at the
point of it drops of blood; but when he tried to grasp at it, it was
nothing but air, a mere phantasm proceeding from his own hot and
oppressed brain and the business he had in hand.

Getting rid of this fear, he entered the king's room, whom he despatched
with one stroke of his dagger. Just as he had done the murder, one of
the grooms, who slept in the chamber, laughed in his sleep, and the
other cried, "Murder," which woke them both; but they said a short
prayer; one of them said, "God bless us!" and the other answered "Amen;"
and addressed themselves to sleep again. Macbeth, who stood listening to
them, tried to say, "Amen," when the fellow said, "God bless us!" but,
though he had most need of a blessing, the word stu