ast prophecy.

Then Macbeth made a great feast in the grand old castle of
Inverness, and invited the king. Lady Macbeth thought this a golden
opportunity for accomplishing the decrees of destiny, and when the
old king arrived she told Macbeth that the time had come for him to
strike boldly for the crown. As Shakspeare says:--

"_Macbeth._ My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night.

_Lady M._ And when goes hence?

_Macbeth._ To-morrow.

_Lady M._ O never shall sun that morrow see."

When this dreadful woman had laid her plot for the taking off of
Duncan, she went to the banquet-hall and greeted the royal guest
with a face all radiant with smiles, and called him sweet names, and
told him fine stories, and brimmed his goblet with wine, so that he
thought, we doubt not, that she was the most charming creature in
all the world.

It was a stormy night, that of the banquet; it rained, it
thundered, and the wind made dreadful noises in the forests, which
events, we have noticed in the stories of the old writers, were apt
to occur in early times when something was about to happen. We are
also informed that the owls hooted, which seems probable, as owls
were quite plenty in those days.

Duncan was conducted to a chamber, which had been prepared for him
in great state, when the feast was done. Before retiring he sent to
"his most kind hostess" a large diamond as a present; he then fell
asleep "in measureless content."

When all was still in the castle Lady Macbeth told her husband that
the hour for the deed had come. He hesitated, and reminded her of
the consequences if he should fail. She taunted him as being a
coward, and told him to "screw his courage up to the sticking-place,
and he would not fail." Then he took his dagger, and, according to
Shakspeare, made a long speech over it, a speech which, I am sorry
to say, stage-struck boys and girls have been mouthing in a most
unearthly manner ever since the days of Queen Bess.

[Illustration: DUNCAN ASLEEP.]

Macbeth "screwed his courage up to the sticking-place" indeed, and
then and there was the end of the life of Duncan. When the deed was
done, he put his poniard into the hand of a sentinel, who was
sleeping in the king's room, under the influence of wine that Lady
Macbeth had drugged.

[Illustration: WITCHES.]

When the meal was prepared on the following morning, Mac