66 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



gladness has long since departed. The whole plant is 

 poisonous, inducing convulsions and a deadly stupor, asso- 

 ciated, in consequence, with an atrocious instance of bar- 

 baric perfidy. Buchanan tells you, that, when Harold the 

 Dane invaded England, in the days of Macbeth, and his 

 brother Sweno made a descent upon Scotland at Fife, a 

 battle ensued, and the Scottish monarch, after experiencing 

 a signal defeat, fled to Perth, where grew abundance of the 

 deadly nightshade. The monarch, having little of martial 

 energy, entrusted the management of his affairs to his 

 lieutenants, Banquo and the wily Macbeth ; and while the 

 former was secretly employed in raising forces, the latter 

 negotiated a truce, engaging likewise to supply provisions 

 for the hostile army. But the liquor, instead of being 

 such as belonged to the land of Ossian, contained a deadly 

 infusion of the nightshade : of this the invaders drank 

 without suspicion, and, being quickly overpowered by the 

 treacherous Scots, a few only escaped with their king. 

 Atropa, therefore, is the name given to this baneful 



