MACBETH.
For the space of a quarter of an hour, or longer, after the
incident related, all remained perfectly quiet in the front of
the royal habitation. The King read and mused in the entrance of
his pavilion; behind, and with his back turned to the same
entrance, the Nubian slave still burnished the ample pavesse; in
front of all, at a hundred paces distant, the yeomen of the guard
stood, sat, or lay extended on the grass, attentive to their own
sports, but pursuing them in silence, while on the esplanade
betwixt them and the front of the tent lay, scarcely to be
distinguished from a bundle of rags, the senseless form of the
marabout.
But the Nubian had the advantage of a mirror from the brilliant
reflection which the surface of the highly-polished shield now
afforded, by means of which he beheld, to his alarm and surprise,
that the marabout raised his head gently from the ground, so as
to survey all around him, moving with a well-adjusted precaution
which seemed entirely inconsistent with a state of ebriety.
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