dy
smiled upon Macbeth, and pointed to them; by which Macbeth knew that
these were the posterity of Banquo, who should reign after him in
Scotland; and the witches, with a sound of soft music, and with dancing,
making a show of duty and welcome to Macbeth, vanished. And from this
time the thoughts of Macbeth were all bloody and dreadful.

The first thing he heard when he got out of the witches' cave, was that
Macduff, thane of Fife, had fled to England, to join the army which was
forming against him under Malcolm, the eldest son of the late king, with
intent to displace Macbeth, and set Malcolm, the right heir, upon the
throne. Macbeth, stung with rage, set upon the castle of Macduff, and
put his wife and children, whom the thane had left behind, to the sword,
and extended the slaughter to all who claimed the least relationship to
Macduff.

These and such-like deeds alienated the minds of all his chief nobility
from him. Such as could, fled to join with Malcolm and Macduff, who were
now approaching with a powerful army, which they had raised in England;
and the rest secretly wished success to their arms, though for fear of
Macbeth they could take no active part. His recruits went on slowly.
Everybody hated the tyrant; nobody loved or honoured him; but all
suspected him, and he began to envy the condition of Duncan, whom he had
murdered, who slept soundly in his grave, against whom treason had done
its worst: steel nor poison, domestic malice nor foreign levies, could
hurt him any longer.

While these things were acting, the queen, who had been the sole partner
in his wickedness, in whose bosom he could sometimes seek a momentary
repose from those terrible dreams which afflicted them both nightly,
died, it is supposed, by her own hands, unable to bear the remorse of
guilt, and public hate; by which event he was left alone, without a soul
to love or care for him, or a friend to whom he could confide his wicked
purposes.

He grew careless of life, and wished for death; but the near approach of
Malcolm's army roused in him what remained of his ancient courage, and
he determined to die (as he expressed it) "with armour on his back."
Besides this, the hollow promises of the witches had filled him with a
false confidence, and he remembered the sayings of the spirits, that
none of woman born was to hurt him, and that he was never to be
vanquished till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane, which he thought
could never be. S