eks turned white with fear, and he stood quite unmanned
with his eyes fixed upon the ghost. His queen and all the nobles, who
saw nothing, but perceived him gazing (as they thought) upon an empty
chair, took it for a fit of distraction; and she reproached him,
whispering that it was but the same fancy which made him see the dagger
in the air, when he was about to kill Duncan. But Macbeth continued to
see the ghost, and gave no heed to all they could say, while he
addressed it with distracted words, yet so significant, that his queen,
fearing the dreadful secret would be disclosed, in great haste
dismissed the guests, excusing the infirmity of Macbeth as a disorder
he was often troubled with.

To such dreadful fancies Macbeth was subject. His queen and he had
their sleeps afflicted with terrible dreams, and the blood of Banquo
troubled them not more than the escape of Fleance, whom now they looked
upon as father to a line of kings who should keep their posterity out
of the throne. With these miserable thoughts they found no peace, and
Macbeth determined once more to seek out the weird sisters, and know
from them the worst.

He sought them in a cave upon the heath, where they, who knew by
foresight of his coming, were engaged in preparing their dreadful
charms, by which they conjured up infernal spirits to reveal to them
futurity. Their horrid ingredients were toads, bats, and serpents, the
eye of a newt, and the tongue of a dog, the leg of a lizard, and the
wing of the night-owl, the scale of a dragon, the tooth of a wolf, the
maw of the ravenous salt-sea shark, the mummy of a witch, the root of
the poisonous hemlock (this to have effect must be digged in the dark),
the gall of a goat, and the liver of a Jew, with slips of the yew tree
that roots itself in graves, and the finger of a dead child: all these
were set on to boil in a great kettle, or cauldron, which, as fast as
it grew too hot, was cooled with a baboon's blood: to these they poured
in the blood of a sow that had eaten her young, and they threw into the
flame the grease that had sweaten from a murderer's gibbet. By these
charms they bound the infernal spirits to answer their questions.

It was demanded of Macbeth, whether he would have his doubts resolved
by them, or by their masters, the spirits. He, nothing daunted by the
dreadful ceremonies which he saw, boldly answered: 'Where are they? let
me see them.' And they called the spirits, which were three. An