bbet, should be thrown into the
flame. Accompanied by a clap of thunder, an armed head rose, and
admonished Macbeth to beware of Macduff. Another demon, more potent,
in the shape of a bloody child, rose and bade Macbeth be courageous;
to laugh to scorn the power of man, for none born of woman could harm
him. A second child, after the first had descended into the bowels of
the earth, told the king that he would not be vanquished till great
Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill should come against him. The
monarch was admonished to ask no more, but he disregarded the warning.
"Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?" he asked. Eight
kings, and Banquo following, appeared to Macbeth's vision. The whole
vision, if such it could be called, surprised him greatly; but no part
of it so much as the spirit of Banquo, whom he had cruelly put to
death with the intention of frustrating destiny, as revealed to him by
the weird sisters, when he first met them on the heath. Seeing the
king dejected, the witches, to cheer him, danced and sang for a time,
and then suddenly disappeared.

Before Macbeth had time to recover from his reverie, a messenger
arrived to inform him that Macduff, whom he dreaded, had fled to
England. So greatly was he exasperated by the tidings, that he
declared his intention of seizing Macduff's castle, giving to the
sword his wife, babes, and all his other relations of whatever degree.
This threat he partly carried into execution.

The day of vengeance was near. Macbeth, mad with fear and ambition,
strove to avert the evil brooding over him, but he could not succeed.
The fiat had gone forth: he was king, as the weird sisters had
foretold he would be, but all his bloody deeds, and the scheming of
his queen, unscrupulous like himself, could not change the decree.
Birnam wood seemed to come to Dunsinane, and Banquo's seed came in due
time to inherit the throne the fates had reserved for them.

In _King Henry the Sixth_ more light is thrown on the doings of evil
spirits. On a deep dark night, the time when owls cried, dogs howled,
spirits walked, and ghosts broke up their graves, a spirit rose, in
compliance with certain ceremonies for making demons appear.
Bolingbroke inquired of the evil one what would become of the king?
The reply was, "The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose. But him
outlive, and die a violent death." In answer to the question, "What
fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?" came the reply, "B