Getting rid of this fear, he entered the king’s room, which he despatched with one stroke of his dagger. Just as he had done the murder, one of the grooms, who slept in the chamber, laughed in his sleep, and the other cried: “Murder,” which woke them both, but they said a short prayer; one of them said: “God bless us!” and the other answered “Amen”; and addressed themselves to sleep again. Macbeth, who stood listening to them, tried to say “Amen,” when the fellow said “God bless us!” but, though he had most need of a blessing, the word stuck in his throat, and he could not pronounce it.
Again he thought he heard a voice which cried: “Sleep no more: Macbeth doth murder sleep, the innocent sleep that nourishes life.” Still it cried: “Sleep no more,” to all the house. “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.”
With such horrible imaginations Macbeth returned to his listening wife, who began to think he had failed of his purpose, and that the deed was somehow frustrated. He came in so distracted a state, that she reproached him with his want of firmness, and sent him to wash his hands of the blood which stained them, while she took his dagger, with purpose to stain the cheeks of the grooms with blood, to make it seem their guilt.