A park near the palace — Banquo killed

A park near the palace. The light is fading. Two murderers wait by the road; a third arrives, sent by Macbeth as a check on the others. The first murderer is suspicious — "he needs not our mistrust" — but accepts him. The third explains the situation: Banquo will be coming this way on foot, having dismissed his horse at the gate as is the custom of the court. They wait.

Banquo and Fleance approach with a torch. Fleance is on foot beside his father; the road is muddy. Banquo, just before the attack, comments on the weather — "it will be rain tonight." The first murderer says: "let it come down." They strike. The torch is dashed out; in the dark, the first thing the audience hears is Banquo's voice. "O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge. O slave!" He is cut down. Fleance, in the confusion of the dark, escapes.

The murderers, when the violence is done, count their work and find it half-finished. "We have lost best half of our affair." Banquo is dead — they have his body. Fleance is gone. They leave to report. The scene is short, brutal, and structurally pivotal. The witches told Banquo his descendants would be kings; Fleance, escaping into the dark, takes the line forward. Macbeth's whole reason for the murder — to extinguish that line and secure his own throne — has failed at its first attempt. The next time we see Macbeth he will be at his banquet, expecting good news, and he is about to receive the worst possible kind: half a dead enemy and a living one running unhindered into a future Macbeth cannot reach.