Chapter: SCENE II.

The same. Without the Castle.

[Enter Ross and an old Man.]

OLD MAN.
Threescore and ten I can remember well:
Within the volume of which time I have seen
Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.

ROSS.
Ah, good father,
Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp;
Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?

OLD MAN.
'Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.

ROSS.
And Duncan's horses,--a thing most strange and certain,--
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.

OLD MAN.
'Tis said they eat each other.

ROSS.
They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes,
That look'd upon't.
Here comes the good Macduff.

[Enter Macduff.]

How goes the world, sir, now?

MACDUFF.
Why, see you not?

ROSS.
Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?

MACDUFF.
Those that Macbeth hath slain.

ROSS.
Alas, the day!
What good could they pretend?

MACDUFF.
They were suborn'd:
Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons,
Are stol'n away and fled; which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.

ROSS.
'Gainst nature still:
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
Thine own life's means!--Then 'tis most like,
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

MACDUFF.
He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone
To be invested.

ROSS.
Where is Duncan's body?

MACDUFF.
Carried to Colme-kill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones.

ROSS.
Will you to Scone?

MACDUFF.
No, cousin, I'll to Fife.

ROSS.
Well, I will thither.

MACDUFF.
Well, may you see things well done there,--adieu!--
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

ROSS.
Farewell, father.

OLD MAN.
God's benison go with you; and with those
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!

[Exeunt.]

 Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand. No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. As Macbeth leaves the hall, Lady Macbeth enters, remarking on her boldness. She imagines that Macbeth is killing the king even as she speaks. Hearing Macbeth cry out, she worries that the chamberlains have awakened. She says that she cannot understand how Macbeth could fail--she had prepared the daggers for the chamberlains herself. She asserts that she would have killed the king herself then and there, "ad he not resembled / father as he slept". Macbeth emerges, his hands covered in blood, and says that the deed is done. Badly shaken, he remarks that he heard the chamberlains awake and say their prayers before going back to sleep. When they said "amen," he tried to say it with them but found that the word stuck in his throat. He adds that as he killed the king, he thought he heard a voice cry out: "Sleep no more, / Macbeth does murder sleep". Lady Macbeth at first tries to steady her husband, but she becomes angry when she notices that he has forgotten to leave the daggers with the sleeping chamberlains so as to frame them for Duncan's murder. He refuses to go back into the room, so she takes the daggers into the room herself, saying that she would be ashamed to be as cowardly as Macbeth. As she leaves, Macbeth hears a mysterious knocking. The portentous sound frightens him, and he asks desperately, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand. As Lady Macbeth reenters the hall, the knocking comes again, and then a third time. She leads her husband back to the bedchamber, where he can wash off the blood. A little water clears us of this deed," she tells him. How easy it is then

