Well, this Milk of Human Kindness is off at a hand-gallop to Inverness. The King has announced a Royal Visit to Macbeth's own Castle. But Cawdor had before this despatched a letter to his lady, from which Shakspeare has given us an extract. And then, as I understand it, a special messenger besides, to say "the King comes here to-night." Which of the two is the more impatient to be at work 'tis hard to say; but the idea of the murder originated with the male Prisoner. We have his wife's word for it--she told him so to his face--and he did not deny it. We have his own word for it--he told himself so to his own face--and he never denies it at any time during the play. TALBOYS. You said, a little while ago, sir, that you believed Macbeth and his wife were a happy couple. NORTH. Not I. I said she was attached to him--and I say now that the wise men are not of the Seven, who point to her reception of her husband, on his arrival at _home_, as a proof of her want of affection. They seem to think she ought to have rushed into his arms--slobbered upon his shoulder--and so forth. For had he not been at the Wars? Pshaw! The most tender-hearted Thanesses of those days--even those that kept albums--would have been ashamed of weeping on sending their Thanes off to battle--much more on receiving them back in a sound skin--with new honours nodding on their plumes. Lady Macbeth was not one of the turtle-doves--fit mate she for the King of the Vultures. I am too good an ornithologist to call them Eagles. She received her mate fittingly--with murder in her soul; but more cruel--more selfish than he, she could not be--nor, perhaps, was she less; but she was more resolute--and resolution even in evil--in such circumstances as hers--seems to argue a superior nature to his, who, while he keeps vacillating, as if it were between good and evil, betrays all the time the bias that is surely inclining him to evil, into which he makes a sudden and sure wheel at last. BULLER. The Weirds--the Weirds!--the Weirds have done it all! NORTH. Macbeth--Macbeth!--Macbeth has done it all! BULLER. Furies and Fates! NORTH. Who make the wicked their victims! SEWARD. Is she sublime in her wickedness? NORTH. It would, I fear, be wrong to say so. But I was speaking of Macbeth's character--not of hers--and, in comparison with him, she may seem a great creature. They are now utterly alone--and of the two he has been the more familiar with murder. Between them, Duncan already is a dead man. But how pitiful--at such a time and at such a greeting--Macbeth's cautions-- "My dearest Love, Duncan comes here to-night! _Lady._--And when goes hence? _Macbeth._--To-morrow, as he purposes. _Lady._--Oh, never Shall sun that morrow see!" Why, Talboys, does not the poor devil-- TALBOYS. Poor devil! Macbeth a poor devil? NORTH. Why, Buller, does not the poor devil? BULLER. Poor devil! Macbeth a poor devil? NORTH.