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. So he shut himself up in his castle, whose impregnable
strength was such as defied a siege: here he sullenly waited the
approach of Malcolm. When, upon a day, there came a messenger to him,
pale and shaking with fear, almost unable to report that which he had
seen; for he averred, that as he stood upon his watch on the hill, he
looked towards Birnam, and to his thinking the wood began to move!
'Liar and slave!' cried Macbeth: 'if thou speakest false, thou shalt
hang alive upon the next tree, till famine end thee. If thy tale be
true, I care not if thou cost as much by me': for Macbeth now began to
faint in resolution, and to doubt the equivocal speeches of the
spirits. He was not to fear till Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane;
and now a wood did move! 'However,' said he, 'if this which he avouches
be true, let us arm and out. There is no flying hence, nor staying
here. I begin to be weary of the sun, and wish my life at an