The Owl 
murder, hears a sound, she exclaims in 
anxlous suspense : 
Hark !—Peace ! 
It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman 
Which gives the stern’st good-night.1 
Her husband, too, after he has done the 
deed, emerges to her with the eager ques- 
tion “ Didst thou not hear a noise?” ; to 
which she replies, “I heard the owl scream 
and the crickets cry.””. Next morning before 
the fatal news had become known it was re- 
ported that, through the midst of a storm, 
The obscure bird 
Clamour’d the livelong night.? 
The appearance of the owl by day was 
unusual enough to be considered an evil 
omen. Among the portents that pre- 
ceded the assassination of Julius Caesar it 
was reported that 
The bird of night did sit, 
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place 
Hooting and shrieking.? 
1 Macbeth, 11. ii. 2-4. * [bid. . iii. 57. 
3 Julius Caesar, i. iii. 26. 
= 57 
