Languages & literature > Key to the drama

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of the Thane, who, attended only by ray
iervant, I fent off in difguife the fame night.
The malefa&or was much of the fame fta-
ture with Argyle fo that having, after his
death, ordered his face to be mangled, I
next morning waited on Macheth ; and tel¬
ling him, that after ufing every artifice in
my power to make the ftubhmn 1 hane
fpeak out, all had been to no purpofe : I
even faid, that I had at firft but partly
ftrangled him, and then relieved him, juii
upon the edge of death, but nothing could
prevail, till at length I was provoked be¬
yond meafure, and had finifhed him, with
only one fervant in the fecret, who was prer
pared to afiert with me, that he had cut his
own throat. The King applauded what
had been done; but anxious, as I expected,
to be convinced of the fadt, he accompanied
me home, where he gratified his inhuman
eyes with the miferable fpedtacle : he then
cordially embraced me, and faid, I had in¬
deed proved myfelf his friend ! The Court
aifedled to lament the cataltrophe ; the
King’s own family went into mourning,
and the body was ordered private, but de¬
cent burial. This, my dear Zcnz, is the
greateft debt you owe me; thy noble father
yet lives, unknown to you, to Eugenia^ or
to any other mortal, but the faithful fer-
,yant who lives with him! and how foon we
can