Languages & literature > Key to the drama

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fpared from the other; faid, he would call
a council that afternoon, to deliberate upon
fuch terms as he would tender to the Scots,
and fend me home in the evening with a
duplicate. I. feemed happy with the fuc-
cefs of my negociation, difpatched imme¬
diately a meflenger to the King, requefting,
that a moment might not be delayed in
fending to the camp of the Norwegians the
liquors demanded ; upon which difpatcHes
I affixed a certain leal, well known to Mac--
beth, and which imported, that lome un-
ufual ftratagem was to be exerted. Per¬
haps you, my friends and deliverer, with
others of fcrupulous honour, will cenfure
this fuggeftion, as unjuft, and not ftridly
confiftent with the fair rules of war; that
nicety I did revolve in my own mind, and
reconciled myfelf to the difficulty, upon
thefe confiderations •, That the enemies
were unprovoked invaders j that they had
in a hoftile manner entered the kingdom,
in contravention of fublifting treaties
and that having commenced hoftilities con¬
trary to the law of nations, they had no right
to be treated as an open and declared enemy.
That if we could fubdue them by artifice,
we Ihould certainly preferve the lives of
many of our own fubjedts ; and as the de-
fign was not to deftroy, but to render them
inabtive, we ftiould even have it in our
I 3 power