Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/264

240 sleep, to wait the waking of another miserable day.

Only one consolation was left the wicked pair. As their love for each other had been strong in innocence, it was still supreme in guilt. Misery only cemented their attachment more firmly, till they seemed to have but one life and one thought. If his wife had been his temptress, Macbeth had no reproach for her; and in his darkest hours her love was ready to shelter and protect and comfort him.

The greatest of Italian poets, Dante, has a story of two guilty lovers, dying in their crimes, whose souls, even in the deepest torment, could never be separated, and who still found consolation in bewailing together their lost happiness. Like them, this unhappy husband and wife were one in love, in guilt, and in remorse.

In the mean time, Macduff, whose loyalty had never despaired in the darkest hour of Scotland’s fortunes, had been in England trying to stimulate the young princes, Malcolm and Donalbain, to return and head an army, which he promised should welcome them as soon as they set foot on their native soil. Macbeth heard of his efforts, and one of the most abhorrent acts of his life is the way he revenged himself upon Macduff. Knowing the wife and children of the latter were left at home in an ungardedunguarded [sic] castle, he sent