ey at last called up an apparition, who said that Macbeth should
never be overcome by his enemies until Birnam wood should come to
the castle of Dunsinane, the royal residence, to attack it.

"Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him."

Now, Birnam wood was twelve miles from Dunsinane (pronounced
Dunsnan), and Macbeth thought that the language was a mystical way
of saying that he always would be exempt from danger.

Malcolm, the son of Duncan, the rightful heir to the throne, was a
man of spirit, and he went to England to solicit aid of the good
King Edward the Confessor against Macbeth. Macduff, having
quarrelled with the king, joined Malcolm, and the English king,
thinking favorably of their cause, sent a great army into Scotland
to discrown Macbeth.

When this army reached Birnam wood, on its way to Dunsinane, Macduff
ordered the men each to take the bough of a tree, and to hold it
before him as he marched to the attack, that Macbeth might not be
able to discover the number and the strength of the assailants. Thus
Birnam wood came against Dunsinane. When Macbeth saw the sight his
courage failed him, and he saw that his hour had come. A battle
ensued, in which he was conquered and killed.

* * * * *

Such is the story, and it seems a pity to spoil so good a story; but
I fear that Shakspeare made his wonderful plot of much the same
"stuff that dreams are made of."

Duncan was a grandson of Malcolm II. on his father's side, and
Macbeth was a grandson of the same king, though on the side of his
mother. On the death of Malcolm, in 1033, each claimed the throne.
Macbeth, according to rule of Scottish succession, had the best
claim, but Duncan obtained the power. Macbeth was naturally
dissatisfied, and the insolence of Malcolm, the son of Duncan, who
placed himself at the head of an intriguing party in Northumberland,
changed his dissatisfaction to resentment, and he slew the king. He
once had a dream, which he deemed remarkable, in which three old
women met him and hailed him as thane of Cromarty, thane of Moray,
and finally as king. Upon this light basis genius has built one of
the most powerful tales of superstition in the language.

Duncan was slain near Elgin, and not in the castle of Inverness.
Malcolm avenged his father's death, s