When Ross approaches Macduff, he is conversing with Malcolm about the sorry state of Scotland under Macbeth's tyrannical rule. When Macduff inquires about his wife, Ross (who knows she has been murdered along with his children) says that she is doing "well." When he persists, Ross says that his family was "well at peace when I did leave ’em." Of course, this is not exactly a lie, since they were dead, i.e., eternally resting. But he eventually brings himself, after begging Macduff not to blame him for the terrible news, to tell Macduff that his "wife and babes" had been "savagely slaughter'd." Macduff is, of course, devastated to hear this horrible news, and reacts with predictable grief. He resolves, with Malcolm's urging, to "dispute it like a man" and steels himself to exact revenge against Macbeth, who he knows is responsible for this atrocity. The news that Ross understandably struggled to deliver to Macduff essentially seals Macbeth's doom. It makes an implacable enemy of Macduff, who has the ability to destroy him.
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