Excerpt from A Child's History of Scotland Malcolm was received with much kindness in England, and Siward went to Scotland with him to help him to regain his father's crown. The country itself rose to welcome and help him when, with the great Thane of Fife, Macduff, at his side, and Saxon Siward with his army, he marched home to the north, so that the usurper trembled before him. Macbeth, as we all know, was a man of many superstitions. He might never have murdered Duncan, or entered on his career of blood at all, if it had not been for the witches, women who were feared and believed in those days, and who were said to have put the whole dreadful scheme into his head, or perhaps only fanned the flame which had been al ready smouldering there. He had been told by these mocking prophetesses that he was safe until Bimam Wood should march to Dunsinane, where he was lodged in his strong castle. This he understood to mean that he should be always safe, for it was certain that to Dunsinane, or anywhere else, Bimam Wood could never march. But it happened that, as the advancing army marched through the noble covert of this wood, Macduff advised the soldiers each to cut for himself a bough from the trees, that their number should not be detected, and thus as Siward's men and the loyal Scots approached, the bright ness of their helmets and breastplates veiled with the green leaves, it was indeed as if Bimam Wood were marching upon the usurper's castle. He sallied forth in his despair and died fighting, which, perhaps, was better than he deserved. I saw a great oak the other day upon the banks of the clear and shining Tay which surged round the promontory of greensward upon which it stood, and this, I was told, was the last tree of Bimam Wood. Amid all the wonderful colours of the autumn woods, it alone stood dark against the gleam of the river and the blue of the sky. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.