CHAP. XIV.

CHAP. XIV.In the mean time,Hamet, to whom his own safety was of no importance but for the sake ofAlmeida, resolved, if possible, to conceal himself near the city. Having, therefore, reached the confines of the desert, by which it was bounded on the east, he quitted his horse, and determined to remain there till the multitude was dispersed; and the darkness of the evening might conceal his return, when in less than an hour he could reach the palace.He sat down at the foot of the mountain Kabessed, without considering,that in this place he was most likely to be found, as those who travel the desert seldom fail to enter the cave that winds its way under the mountain, to drink of the water that issues there from a clear and copious spring.He reviewed the scenes of the day that was now nearly passed, with a mixture of astonishment and distress, to which no description can be equal The sudden and amazing change that a few hours had made in his situation, appeared like a wild and distressful dream, from which he almost doubted whether he should not wake to the power and the felicity that he had lost. He sat some time bewildered in the hurry and multiplicity of his thoughts, and at length burst out into passionateexclamations: 'What,' says he, 'and where am I? Am I, indeed,Hamet; that son of Solyman who divided the dominion of Persia with his brother, and who possessed the love ofAlmeidaalone? Dreadful vicissitude! I am now an outcast, friendless and forlorn; without an associate, and without a dwelling: for me the cup of adversity overflows, and the last dregs of sorrow have been wrung out for my portion: the powers not only of the earth, but of the air, have combined against me; and how can I stand alone before them? But is there no power that will interpose in my behalf? If He, who is supreme, is good, I shall not perish. But wherefore am I thus? Why should the desires of vice beaccomplished by superior powers; and why should superior powers be permitted to disappoint the expectations of virtue? Yet let me not rashly question the ways of Him, in whose balance the world is weighed: by Him, every evil is rendered subservient to good; and by His wisdom, the happiness of the whole is secured. Yet I am but a part only, and for a part only I can feel. To me, what is that goodness of which I do not partake? In my cup the gall is unmixed; and have I not, therefore, a right to complain? But what have I said? Let not the gloom that surrounds me, hide from me the prospect of immortality. Shall not eternity atone for time? Eternity, to which the duration of ages is butas an atom to a world! Shall I not, when this momentary separation is past, again meetAlmeidato part no more? and shall not a purer flame than burns upon the earth, unite us? Even at this moment, her mind, which not the frauds of sorcery can taint or alienate, is mine: that pleasure which she reserved for me, cannot be taken by force; it is in the consent alone that it subsists; and from the joy that she feels, and from that only, proceeds the joy she can bestow.'With these reflections he soothed the anguish of his mind, till the dreadful moment arrived, in which the power of the talisman took place, and the figure ofAlmoranwas changed intothat ofHamet, and the figure ofHametinto that ofAlmoran.At the moment of transformation,Hametwas seized with a sudden languor, and his faculties were suspended as by the stroke of death. When he recovered, his limbs still trembled, and his lips were parched with thirst: he rose, therefore, and entering the cavern, at the mouth of which he had been sitting, he stooped over the well to drink; but glancing his eyes upon the water, he saw, with astonishment and horror, that it reflected, not his own countenance, but that of his brother. He started back from the prodigy; and supporting himself against the side of the rock, he stood some time like a statue, without the powerof recollection: but at length the thought suddenly rushed into his mind, that the same sorcery which had suspended his marriage, and driven him from the throne was still practised against him; and that the change of his figure to that ofAlmoran, was the effect ofAlmoran'shaving assumed his likeness, to obtain, in this disguise, whateverAlmeidacould bestow. This thought, like a whirlwind of the desert, totally subverted his mind; his fortitude was borne down, and his hopes were rooted up; no principles remained to regulate his conduct, but all was phrensy, confusion, and despair. He rushed out of the cave with a furious and distracted look; and went in haste towards the city, without having formed any design,or considered any consequence that might follow.The shadows of the mountains were now lengthened by the declining sun; and the approach of evening had invitedOmarto meditate in a grove, that was adjacent to the gardens of the palace. From this place he was seen at some distance byHamet, who came up to him with a hasty and disordered pace; andOmardrew back with a cold and distant reverence, which the power and the character ofAlmoranconcurred to excite.Hamet, not reflecting upon the cause of this behaviour, was offended, and reproached him with the want of that friendship he had so often professed: the vehemence, of his expression and demeanor, suited well withthe appearance ofAlmoran; andOmar, as the best proof of that friendship which had been impeached, took this opportunity to repeat his admonitions in the behalf ofHamet: 'What ever evil,' said he, 'thou canst bring uponHamet, will be doubled to thyself: to his virtues, the Power that fills infinitude is a friend, and he can be afflicted only till they are perfect; but thy sufferings will be the punishment of vice, and as long as thou are vicious they must increase.Hamet, who instantly recollected for whom he was mistaken, and the anguish of whose mind was for a moment suspended by this testimony of esteem and kindness, which could not possibly be feigned, and which waspaid him at the risque of life, when it could not be known that he received it; ran forward to embrace the hoary sage, who had been the guide of his youth, and cried out, in a voice that was broken by contending passions, 'The face is the face ofAlmoran, but the heart is the heart ofHamet.'Omarwas struck dumb with astonishment; andHamet, who was impatient to be longer mistaken, related all the circumstances of his transformation, and reminded him of some particulars which could be known only to themselves: 'Canst thou not yet believe,' said he, 'that I amHamet? when thou hast this day seen me banished from my kingdom; when thou hast now met me a fugitivereturning from the desert; and when I learnt from thee, since the sun was risen which is not yet set, that more than mortal powers were combined against me.' 'I now believe,' saidOmar, 'that thou, indeed, artHamet.' 'Stay me not then,' saidHamet; 'but come with me to revenge.' 'Beware,' saidOmar, 'lest thou endanger the loss of more than empire andAlmeida.' 'If not to revenge,' saidHamet,' I may at least be permitted to punish.' 'Thy mind,' saysOmar, 'is now in such a state, that to punish the crimes by which thou hast been wronged, will dip thee in the guilt of blood. Why else are we forbidden to take vengeance for ourselves? and why is it reserved as the prerogative of theMost High? In Him, and in Him alone, it is goodness guided by wisdom: He approves the means, only as necessary to the end; He wounds only to heal, and destroys only to save; He has complacence, not in the evil, but in the good only which it is appointed to produce. Remember, therefore, that he, to whom the punishment of another is sweet; though his act may be just with respect to others, with respect to himself it is a deed of darkness, and abhorred by the Almighty.'Hamet, who had stood abstracted in the contemplation of the new injury he had suffered, whileOmarwas persuading him not to revenge it, started from his posture in all the wildness of distraction;and bursting away fromOmar, with an ardent and furious look hasted toward the palace, and was soon out of sight.CHAP. XV.In the mean time,Almoran, after having effected the transformation, was met, as he was going to the apartment ofAlmeida, by Osmyn. Osmyn had already experienced the misery of dependent greatness, that kept him continually under the eye of a capricious tyrant, whose temper was various as the gales of summer, and whose anger was sudden as the bolt of heaven; whose purpose and passions were dark and impetuous as the midnight storm, and at whose command death was inevitable as the approach of time. Whenhe sawAlmoran, therefore, in the likeness ofHamet, he felt a secret desire to apprize him of his situation, and offer him his friendship.Almoran, who with the form assumed the manners ofHamet, addressed Osmyn with a mild though mournful countenance: 'At length,' said he, 'the will ofAlmoranalone is law; does it permit me to hold a private rank in this place, without molestation?' 'It permits,' said Osmyn, 'yet more; he has commanded, that you should have admittance toAlmeida.'Almoran, whose vanity betrayed him to flatter his own power in the person ofHamet, replied with a smile: 'I know, thatAlmoran, who presides like a God in silentand distant state, reveals the secrets of his will to thee; I know that thou art'—'I am,' said Osmyn, 'of all thou seest, most wretched.' At this declaration,Almoranturned short, and fixed his eyes upon Osmyn with a look of surprize and anger: 'Does not the favour ofAlmoran,' said he, 'whose smile is power, and wealth, and honour, shine upon thee?' 'My lord,' said Osmyn, 'I know so well the severity of thy virtue, that if I should, even for thy sake, become perfidious to thy brother'—Almoran, who was unable to preserve the character ofHametwith propriety, interrupted him with a fierce and haughty tone: 'How!' said he, 'perfidious tomy brother! toAlmoranperfidious!'Osmyn, who had now gone too far to recede, and who still saw before him the figure ofHamet, proceeded in his purpose: 'I knew,' said he, 'that in thy judgment I should be condemned; and yet, the preservation of life is the strongest principle of nature, and the love of virtue is her proudest boast.' 'Explain thyself,' saidAlmoran, 'for I cannot comprehend thee.' 'I mean,' said Osmyn, 'that he, whose life depends upon the caprice of a tyrant, is like the wretch whose sentence is already pronounced; and who, if the wind does but rush by his dungeon, imagines that it is the bow-string and themute.' 'Fear not,' saidAlmoran, who now affected to be again calm; 'be still faithful, and thou shalt still be safe.' 'Alas!' said Osmyn, there is no diligence, no toil, no faith, that can secure the slave from the sudden phrensy of passion, from, the causeless rage either of drunkenness or lust. I am that slave; the slave of a tyrant whom I hate.' The confusion ofAlmoranwas now too great to be concealed, and he stood silent with rage, fear, and indignation. Osmyn, supposing that his wonder suspended his belief of what he had heard, confirmed his declaration by an oath.Whoever thou art, to whose mindAlmoran, the mighty and the proud,is present; before whom, the lord of absolute dominion stands trembling and rebuked; who seest the possessor of power by which nature is controuled, pale and silent with anguish and disappointment: if, in the fury of thy wrath, thou hast aggravated weakness into guilt; if thou hast chilled the glow of affection, when it flushed the cheek in thy presence, with the frown of displeasure, or repressed the ardour of friendship with indifference or neglect; now, let thy heart smite thee: for, in thy folly, thou hast cast away that gem, which is the light of life; which power can never seize, and which gold can never buy!The tyrant fell at once from his pride, like a star from Heaven; andOsmyn, still addressing him asHamet, at once increased his misery and his fears: 'O,' said he, 'that the throne of Persia was thine! then should innocence enjoy her birth-right of peace, and hope should bid honest industry look upward. There is not one to whomAlmoranhas delegated power, nor one on whom his transient favour has bestowed any gift, who does not already feel his heart throb with the pangs of boding terror. Nor is there one who, if he did not fear the displeasure of the invisible power by whom the throne has been given to thy brother, would not immediately revolt to thee.'Almoran, who had hitherto remained silent, now burst into a passionateexclamation of self pity: 'What can I do?' said he; 'and whither can I turn?' Osmyn, who mistook the cause of his distress, and supposed that he deplored only his want of power to avail himself of the general disposition in his favour, endeavoured to fortify his mind against despair: 'Your state,' said he, 'indeed is distressful, but not hopeless.' The king who, though addressed as,Hamet, was still betrayed by his confusion to answer asAlmoran, smote his breast, and replied in an agony, 'It is hopeless!' Osmyn remarked his emotion and despair, with, a concern and astonishment thatAlmoranobserved, and at once recollected his situation. He endeavoured to retract such expressions of trouble and despondency,as did not suit the character he hid assumed; and telling Osmyn that he thanked him for his friendship; and would improve the advantages it offered him, he directed him to acquaint the eunuchs that they were to admit him toAlmeida. When he was left alone; his doubts and perplexity held him long in suspense; a thousand expedients occurred to his mind by turns, and by turns were rejected.His first thought was to put Osmyn to death: but he considered; that by this he would gain no advantage, as he would be in equal danger from whoever should succeed him: he considered also, that against Osmyn he was upon his guard; and that he might at any time learn, from him, whateverdesign might be formed in favour ofHamet, by assumingHamet'sappearance: that he would thus be the confident of every secret, in which his own safety was concerned; and might disconcert the best contrived project at the very moment of its execution, when it would be too late for other measures to be taken: he determined, therefore, to let Osmyn live; at least, till it became more necessary to cut him off. Having in some degree soothed and fortified his mind by these reflections, he entered the apartment ofAlmeida.His hope was not founded upon a design to marry her under the appearance ofHamet; for that would be impossible, as the ceremony must have been performed by the priests who supposedthe marriage withHametto have been forbidden by a divine command; and who, therefore, would not have consented, even supposing they would otherwise have ventured, at the request ofHamet, to perform a ceremony which they knew would be displeasing toAlmoran: but he hoped to take advantage of her tenderness for his brother, and the particular circumstances of her situation, which made the solemnities of marriage impossible, to seduce her to gratify his desires, without the sanction which alone rendered the gratification of them lawful: if he succeeded in this design, he had reason to expert, either that his love would be extinguished by enjoyment; or that, if he should still desire to marryAlmeida, he might, by disclosing to her the artifice by which he hadeffected his purpose, prevail upon her to consent, as her connexion withHamet, the chief obstacle to her marriage with him, would then be broken for ever; and as she might, perhaps, wish to sanctify the pleasure which she might be not unwilling to repeat, or at least to make that lawful which it would not be in her power to prevent.In this disposition, and with this design, he was admitted toAlmeida; who, without suspicion of her danger, was exposed to the severest trial, in which every passion concurred to oppose her virtue: she was solicited by all the powers of subtilty and desire, under the appearance of a lover whose tenderness and fidelity had been long tried, and whose passion she returned withequal constancy and ardour; and she was thus solicited, when the rites which alone could consecrate their union, were impossible, and were rendered impossible by the guilty designs of a rival, in whose power she was, and from whom no other expedient offered her a deliverance. Thus deceived and betrayed, she received him with an excess of tenderness and joy, which flattered all his hopes, and for a moment suspended his misery. She enquired, with a fond and gentle solicitude, by what means he had gained admittance, and how he had provided for his retreat. He received and returned her caresses with a vehemence, in which, to less partial eyes, desire would have been more apparent than love; and in the tumult of his passion, he almost neglected herenquiries: finding, however, that she would be answered, he told her, that being by the permission ofAlmoranadmitted to every part of the palace, except that of the women, he had found means to bribe the eunuch who kept the door; who was not in danger of detection, becauseAlmoran, wearied with the tumult and fatigue of the day, had retired to sleep, and given order to be called at a certain hour. She then complained of the felicitations to which she was exposed, expressed her dread of the consequences she had reason to expect from some sudden sally of the tyrant's rage, and related with tears the brutal outrage she had suffered when he last left her. 'Though I abhorred him,' said she, 'I yet kneeled before him for thee.Let me bend in reverence to that Power, at whose look the whirlwinds are silent, and the seas are calm, that his fury has hitherto been restrained from hurting thee!'At these words, the face ofAlmoranwas again covered with the blushes of confusion: to be still beloved only asHamet, and asAlmoranto be still hated; to be thus reproached without anger, and wounded by those who knew not that they struck him; was a species of misery peculiar to himself, and had been incurred only by the acquisition of new powers, which he had requested and received as necessary to obtain that felicity, which the parsimony of nature had placed beyond his reach. His emotions, however, as byAlmeidathey were supposed to be the emotions ofHamet, she imputed to a different cause: 'As Heaven,' says she, 'has preserved thee from death; so has it, for thy sake, preserved me from violation.'Almoran, whose passion had in this interval again surmounted his remorse, gazed eagerly upon her, and catching her to his bosom; 'Let us at least,' says he, 'secure the happiness that is now offered; let not these inestimable moments pass by us unimproved; but to shew that we deserve them, let them be devoted to love.' 'Let us then,' saidAlmeida, 'escape together.' 'To escape with thee,' said:Almoran, 'is impossible. I shall retire, and, like the shaft of Arabia, leave no mark behind, me; but theflight ofAlmeidawill at once be traced to him by whom I was admitted, and I shall thus retaliate his friendship with destruction.' 'Let him then,' saidAlmeida, 'be the partner of our flight.' 'Urge it not now,' saidAlmoran; 'but trust to my prudence and my love, to select some hour that will be more favourable to our purpose. And yet,' said he, 'even then, we shall, as now, sigh in vain for the completion of our wishes: by whom shall our hands be joined, when in the opinion of the priests it has been forbidden from above?' 'Save thyself then,' saidAlmeida, and leave me to my fate.' 'Not so,' saidAlmoran. 'What else,' repliedAlmeida, 'is in our power?' 'It is in our power,' saidAlmoran, 'to seize that joy, to which a public form can give us no new claim; for the public form can only declare that right by which I claim it now.'As they were now reclining upon a sofa, he threw his arm round her; but she suddenly sprung up, and burst from him: the tear started to her eye, and she gazed upon him with an earnest but yet tender look: 'Is it?' says she—'No sure, it is not the voice ofHamet!' 'O! yes,' saidAlmoran, 'what other voice should call thee to cancel at once the wrongs ofHametandAlmeida; to secure the treasures of thy love from the hand of the robber; to hide, the joys, which if now we lose we may lose for ever, in thesacred and inviolable stores of the past, and place them beyond the power not ofAlmoranonly but of fate?' With this wild effusion of desire, he caught her again to his breast, and finding no resistance his heart exulted in his success; but the next moment, to the total disappointment of his hopes, he perceived that she had fainted in his arms. When she recovered, she once more disengaged herself from him, and turning away her face, she burst into tears. When her voice could be heard, she covered herself with her veil, and turning again towards him, 'All but this,' said she, 'I had learnt to bear; and how has this been deserved byAlmeidaofHamet? You was my only solace in distress; and when the tears have stolen from my eyes in silenceand in solitude, I thought on thee; I thought upon the chaste ardour of thy sacred friendship, which was softened, refined, and exalted into love. This was my hoarded treasure; and the thoughts of possessing this; soothed all my anguish with a miser's happiness, who, blest in the consciousness of hidden wealth, despises cold and hunger, and rejoices in the midst of all the miseries that make poverty dreadful: this was my last retreat; but I am now desolate and forlorn, and my soul looks round, with terror, for that refuge which it can never find.' 'Find that refuge,' saidAlmoran, 'in me.' 'Alas!' saidAlmeida, 'can he afford me refuge from my sorrows, who, for the guilty pleasures of a transient moment,would forever sully the purity of my mind, and aggravate misfortune by the consciousness of guilt?'AsAlmorannow perceived, that it was impossible, by any importunity, to induce her to violate her principles; he had nothing more to attempt, but to subvert them. 'When,' said he, 'shallAlmeidaawake, and these dreams of folly and superstition vanish? That only is virtue, by which happiness is produced; and whatever produces happiness, is therefore virtue; and the forms, and words and rites, which priests have pretended to be required by Heaven, are the fraudful arts only by which they govern mankind.'Almeida, by this impious insult, was roused from grief to indignation: 'As thou hast now dared,' said she, 'to deride the laws, which thou wouldst first have broken; so hast thou broken for ever the tender bonds, by which my soul was united to thine. Such as I fondly believed thee, thou art not; and what thou art, I have never loved. I have loved a delusive phantom only, which, while I strove to grasp it, has vanished from me.'Almoranattempted to reply; but on such a subject, neither her virtue nor her wisdom would permit debate. 'That prodigy,' said she, 'which I thought was the sleight of cunning, or the work of sorcery, I now revere as the voice of Heaven; which, as it knew thy heart,has in mercy saved me from thy arms. To the will of Heaven shall my will be obedient; and my voice also shall pronounce, toAlmoranAlmeida.'Almoran, whose whole soul was now suspended in attention, conceived new hopes of success; and foresaw the certain accomplishment of his purpose, though by an effect directly contrary to that which he had laboured to produce. Thus to have incurred the hatred ofAlmeidain the form ofHamet, was more fortunate than to have taken advantage of her love; the path that led to his wishes was now clear and open; and his marriage withAlmeidain his own person, waited only till he could resume it. He, therefore,instead of soothing, provoked her resentment: 'If thou hast loved a phantom,' said he, 'which existed only in imagination; on such a phantom my love also has been fixed: thou hast, indeed, only the form of what I calledAlmeida; my love thou hast rejected, because thou hast never loved; the object of thy passion was notHamet, but a throne; and thou hast made the observance of rituals, in which folly only can suppose there is good or ill, a pretence to violate thy faith, that thou mayst still gratify thy ambition.'To this injurious reproach,Almeidamade no reply; andAlmoranimmediately quitted her apartment, that he might reassume his own figure,take advantage of the disposition which, under the appearance ofHamet, he had produced in favour of himself: But Osmyn, who supposing him to beHamet, had intercepted and detained him as he was going toAlmeida, now intercepted him a second time at his return, having placed himself near the door of the apartment for that purpose.Osmyn was by no means satisfied with the issue of their last interview: he had perceived a perturbation in the mind ofAlmoran, for which, imagining him to beHamet, he could not account; and which seemed more extraordinary upon a review, than when it happened; he, therefore, again entered into conversation with him, in which hefarther disclosed his sentiments and designs.Almoran, notwithstanding the impatience natural to his temper and situation, was thus long detained listening to Osmyn, by the united influence of his curiosity and his fears; his enquiries still alarmed him with new terrors, by discovering new objects of distrust, and new instances of disaffection: still, however, he resolved, not yet to remove Osmyn from his post, that he might give no alarm by any appearance of suspicion, and consequently learn with more ease; and detect with more certainty, any project that might be formed against him.CHAP. XVI.Almeida, as soon as she was left alone, began to review the scene that had just past; and was every moment affected with new wonder, grief, and resentment. She now deplored her own misfortune; and now conceived a design to punish the author of it, from whose face she supposed the hand of adversity had torn the mask under which he had deceived her: it appeared to her very easy, to take a severe revenge uponHametfor the indignity which she supposed he had offered her, by complaining of ittoAlmoran; and telling him, that he had gained admittance to her by bribing the eunuch who kept the door. The thought of thus giving him up, was one moment rejected, as arising from a vindictive spirit; and the next indulged, as an act of justice toAlmoran, and a punishment due to the hypocrisy ofHamet: to the first she inclined, when her grief, which was still mingled with a tender remembrance of the man she loved, was predominant; and to the last, when her grief gave way to indignation.Thus are we inclined to consider the same action, either as a virtue, or a vice, by the influence of different passions, which prompt us either to perform or to avoid it.Almeida, from deliberatingwhether she should accuseHamettoAlmoran, or conceal his fault, was led to consider what punishment he would either incur or escape in consequence of her determination; and the images that rushed into her mind, the moment this became the object of her thoughts, at once determined her to be silent: 'Could I bear to see,' said she, 'that hand, which has so often trembled with delight when it enfolded mine, convulsed and black! those eyes, that as often as they gazed upon me were dissolved in tears of tenderness and love, start from the sockets! and those lips that breathed the softest sighs of elegant desire, distorted and gasping in the convulsions of death!'From this image, her mind recoiled in an agony of terror and pity; her heart sunk within her; her limbs trembled she sunk down upon the sofa, and burst into tears.By this time,Hamet, on whose form the likeness ofAlmoranwas still impressed, had reached the palace. He went instantly towards the apartment of the women. Instead of that chearful alacrity, that mixture of zeal and reverence and affection, which his eye had been used to find where-ever it was turned, he now observed confusion, anxiety and terror; whoever he met, made haste to prostrate themselves before him, and feared to look up till he was past. He went on, however, with a hasty pace; and coming upto the eunuch's guard, he said with an impatient tone; 'ToAlmeida.' The slave immediately made way before him, and conducted him to the door of the apartment, which he would not otherwise have been able to find, and for which he could not directly enquire.When he entered, his countenance expressed all the passions that his situation had roused in his mind. He first looked sternly round him, to see whetherAlmoranwas not present; and then fetching a deep sigh he turned his eyes, with a look of mournful tenderness, uponAlmeida. His first view was to discover, whetherAlmoranhad already supplanted him; and for this purpose he collected the whole strengthof his mind: he considered that he appeared now, not asHamet, but asAlmoran; and that he was to questionAlmeidaconcerningAlmoran, while she had mistaken him forHamet; he was therefore to maintain the character, at whatever expence, till his doubts were resolved, and his fears either removed or confirmed: he was so firmly persuaded, thatAlmoranhad been there before him, that he did not ask the question, but supposed the fact; he restrained alike both his tenderness and his fears; and looking earnestly uponAlmeida, who had risen up in his presence with blushes and confusion, 'To me,' says he, 'isAlmeidastill cold? and has she lavished all her love uponHamet?'At the name ofHamet, the blushes and confusion ofAlmeidaincreased: her mind was still full of the images, which had risen from the thought of whatHametmight suffer, ifAlmoranshould know that he had been with her; and though she feared that their interview was discovered, yet she hoped it might be only suspected, and in that case the removal or confirmation of the suspicions, on which the fate ofHametdepended, would devolve upon her.In this situation, she, who a few moments before doubted, whether she should not voluntarily give him up, when nothing more was necessary for his safety than to be silent; now determined, with whatever reluctance,to secure him, though it could not he done without dissimulation, and though it was probable that in this dissimulation she would be detected. Instead, therefore, of answering the question, she repeated it: 'On whom said my lord, onHamet?'Hamet, whose suspicions were increased by the evasion, replied with great emotion, 'Aye, onHamet; did he not this moment leave you?' 'Leave me this moment?' saidAlmeida, with yet greater confusion, and deeper blushes.Hamet, in the impatience of his jealousy, concluded, that the passions which he saw expressed in her countenance, and which arose from the struggle between her regard to truth and her tenderness forHamet, proceededfrom the consciousness of what he had most reason to dread, and she to conceal, a breach of virtue, to which she had been betrayed by his own appearance united with the vices of his brother: he, therefore, drew back from her with a look of inexpressible anguish, and stood some time silent. She observed, that in his countenance there was more expression of trouble, than rage; she, therefore, hoped to divert him from persuing his enquiries, by at once removing his jealousy; which she supposed would be at an end, as soon as she should disclose the resolution she had taken in his favour. Addressing him, therefore, asAlmoran, with a voice which though it was gentle and soothing, was yet mournful and tremulous; 'Do not turn from me,' said she,with those unfriendly and frowning looks; give me now that love which so lately you offered, and with all the future I will atone the past.'UponHamet, whose heart involuntarily answered to the voice ofAlmeida, these words had irresistible and instantaneous force; but recollecting, in a moment, whose form he bore, and to whom they were addressed, they struck him with new astonishment, and increased the torments of his mind. Supposing what he at first feared had happened, and thatAlmoranhad seduced her asHamet; he could not account for her now addressing him, asAlmoran, with words of favour and compliance: he, therefore, renewed his enquiries concerning himself, with apprehensionsof a different kind. She, who was still solicitous to put an end to the enquiry, as well for the sake ofHamet, as to prevent her own embarrassment, replied with a sigh, 'Let not thy peace be interrupted by one thought ofHamet; for ofHametAlmeidashall think no more.'Hamet, who, though he had fortified himself against whatever might have happened to her person, could not bear the alienation of her mind, cried our, with looks of distraction and a voice scarcely human, 'Not think ofHamet!'Almeida, whose astonishment was every moment increasing, replied, with a tender and interesting enquiry, 'IsAlmoranthen offended, thatAlmeidamould think ofHametno more?'Hamet, being thusaddressed by the name of his brother, again recollected his situation; and now first conceived the idea, that the alteration ofAlmeida'ssentiments with respect to himself, might be the effect of some violence offered her byAlmoranin his likeness; he, therefore, recurred to his first purpose, and determined, by a direct enquiry, to discover whether she had seen him under that appearance. This enquiry he urged with the utmost solemnity and ardour, in terms suitable to his present appearance and situation: 'Tell me,' said he, 'have these doors been open toHamet? Has he obtained possession of that treasure, which, by the voice of Heaven, has been allotted to me?'To this double question,Almeidaanswered by a single negative; and her answer, therefore, was both false and true: it was true that her person was still inviolate, and it was true also thatHamethad not been admitted to her; yet her denial of it was false, for she believed the contrary;Almoranonly had been admitted, but she had received him as his brother.Hamet, however, was satisfied with the answer, and did not discover its fallacy. He looked up to Heaven, with an expression of gratitude and joy; and then turning toAlmeida, 'Swear then,' said he, 'that thou hast granted toHamet, no pledge of thy love which should be reserved for me.'Almeida, who now thought nothing more than the asseveration necessary to quiethis mind, immediately complied: 'I swear,' said she, 'that toHametI have given nothing, which thou wouldst wish me to with-hold: the power that has devoted my person to thee, has disunited my heart fromHamet, whom I renounce in thy presence for ever.'Hamet, whose fortitude and recollection were again overborne, was thrown into an agitation of mind, which discovered itself by looks and gestures very different from those whichAlmeidahad expected, and overwhelmed her with new confusion and disappointment: that he, who had so lately solicited her love with all the vehemence of a desire impatient to be gratified, should now receive a declarationthat she was ready to comply with marks of distress and anger, was a mystery which she could not solve. In the mean time, the struggle in his breast became every moment more violent: 'Where then,' said he, 'is the constancy which you vowed toHamet; and for what instance of his love is he now forsaken?'Almeidawas now more embarrassed than before; she felt all the force of the reproof, supposing it to have been given byAlmoran; and she could be justified only by relating the particular, which at the expence of her sincerity she had determined to conceal.Almoranwas now exalted in her opinion, while his form was animated by the spirit ofHamet; as much asHamethad been degraded, while his form was animated by the spirit ofAlmoran. In his resentment of her perfidy to his rival, though it favoured his fondest and most ardent wishes, there was an abhorrence of vice, and a generosity of mind, which she supposed to have been incompatible with his character. To his reproach, she could reply only by complaint; and could no otherwise evade his question, than by observing the inconsistency of his own behaviour: 'Your words,' said she, 'are daggers to my heart. You condemn me for a compliance with your own wishes; and for obedience to that voice, which you supposed to have revealed the will of Heaven. Has the caprice of desire already wandered to a new object? and do younow seek a pretence to refuse, when it is freely offered, what so lately you would have taken by force?'Hamet, who was now fired with resentment againstAlmeida, whom yet he could not behold without desire; and who, at the same moment, was impatient to revenge his wrongs uponAlmoran; was suddenly prompted to satisfy all his passions, by taking advantage of the wiles ofAlmoran, and the perfidy ofAlmeida, to defeat the one and to punish the other. It was now in his power instantly to consummate his marriage, as a priest might be procured without a moment's delay, and asAlmeida'sconsent was already given; he would then obtain the possession of her person, by the very actin which she perfidiously resigned it to his rival; to whom he would then leave the beauties he had already possessed, and cast from him in disdain, as united with a mind that he could never love. As his imagination was fired with the first conception of this design, he caught her to his breast with a fury, in which all the passions in all their rage were at once concentered: 'Let the priest,' said he, 'instantly unite us. Let us comprize, in one moment, in this instant, NOW, our whole of being, and exclude alike the future and the past!' Then grasping her still in his arms, he looked up to heaven: 'Ye powers,' said he, 'invisible but yet present, who mould my changing and unresisting form; prolong, but for one hour, thatmysterious charm, that is now upon me, and I will be ever after subservient to your will!'Almeida, who was terrified at the furious ardor of this unintelligible address, shrunk from his embrace, pale and trembling, without power to reply.Hametgazed tenderly upon her; and recollecting the purity and tenderness with which he had loved her, his virtues suddenly recovered their force; he dismissed her from his embrace; and turning from her, he dropped in silence the tear that started to his eye, and expressed, in a low and faultering voice, the thoughts that rushed upon his mind: 'No,' said he;Hametshall still disdain the joy, which is at once sordid and transient:in the breast ofHamet, lust shall not be the pander of revenge. Shall I, who have languished for the pure delight which can arise only from the interchange of soul with soul, and is endeared by mutual confidence and complacency; shall I snatch under this disguise, which belies my features and degrades my virtue, a casual possession of faithless beauty, which I despise and hate? Let this be the portion of those, that hate me without a cause; but let this be far from me!' At this thought, he felt a sudden elation of mind; and the conscious dignity of virtue, that in such a conflict was victorious, rendered him, in this glorious moment, superior to misfortune: his gesture became calm, and his countenance sedate; heconsidered the wrongs he suffered, not as a sufferer, but as a judge; and he determined at once to discover himself toAlmeida, and to reproach her with her crime. He remarked her confusion without pity, as the effect not of grief but of guilt; and fixing his eyes upon her, with the calm severity of a superior and offended being, 'Such,' said he, 'is the benevolence of the Almighty to the children of the dust, that our misfortunes are, like poisons, antidotes to each other.'Almeida, whose faculties were now suspended by wonder and expectation, looked earnestly at him, but continued silent. 'Thy looks,' saidHamet, are full of wonder; but as yet thy wonder has no cause, in comparisonof that which shall be revealed. Thou knowest the prodigy, which so lately partedHametandAlmeida: I am thatHamet, thou art thatAlmeida.'Almeidawould now have interrupted him; butHametraised his voice, and demanded to be heard: 'At that moment,' said he, 'wretched as I am, the child of error and disobedience, my heart repined in secret at the destiny which had been written upon my head; for I then thought thee faithful and constant: but if our hands had been then united, I should have been more wretched than I am; for I now know that thou art fickle and false. To know thee, though it has pierced my soul with sorrow, has yet healed the wound which was inflicted when I lost thee:and though I am now compelled to wear the form ofAlmoran, whose vices are this moment disgracing mine, yet in the balance I shall be weighed asHamet, and I shall suffer only as I am found wanting.'Almeida, whose mind was now in a tumult that bordered upon distraction, bewildered in a labyrinth of doubt and wonder, and alike dreading the consequence of what she heard, whether it was false or true, was yet impatient to confute or confirm it; and as soon as she had recovered her speech, urged him for some token of the prodigy he asserted, which he might easily have given, by relating any of the incidents which themselves only could know. But just at this moment,Almoran,having at last disengaged himself from Osmyn, by whom he had been long detained, resumed his own figure: and while the eyes ofAlmeidawere fixed uponHamet, his powers were suddenly taken from him, and restored in an instant; and she beheld the features ofAlmoranvanish, and gazed with astonishment upon his own: 'Thy features change!' said she, 'and thou indeed artHamet.' 'The sudden trance,' said he, 'has restored me to myself; and from my wrongs where shalt thou be hidden?' This reproach was more than she could sustain, but he caught her as she was falling, and supported her in his arms. This incident renewed in a moment all the tenderness of his love: while he beheld her distress, and pressed her bythe embrace that sustained her to his bosom, he forgot every injury which he supposed she had done him; and perceived her recover with a pleasure, that for a moment suspended the sense of his misfortunes.Her first reflection was upon the snare, in which she had been taken; and her first sensation was joy that she had escaped: she saw at once the whole complication of events that had deceived and distressed her; and nothing more was now necessary, than to explain them toHamet; which, however, she could not do, without discovering the insincerity of her answers to the enquiries which he had made, while she mistook him for his brother: 'If in my heart,' says she, 'thou hastfound any virtue, let it incline thee to pity the vice that is mingled with it: by the vice I have been ensnared, but I have been delivered by the virtue.Almoran, for now I know that it was not thee,Almoran, when he possessed thy form, was with me: he prophaned thy love, by attempts to supplant my virtue; I resisted his importunity, and escaped perdition; but the guilt ofAlmorandrew my resentment uponHamet. I thought the vices which, under thy form, I discovered in his bosom, were thine; and in the anguish of grief, indignation, and disappointment, my heart renounced thee: yet, as I could not give thee up to death, I could not discover toAlmoranthe attempt which I imputedto thee; when you questioned me, therefore, asAlmoran, I was betrayed to dissimulation, by the tenderness which still melted my heart forHamet.' 'I believe thee,' saidHamet, catching her in a transport to his breast: 'I love thee for thy virtue; and may the pure and exalted beings, who are superior to the passions that now throb in my heart, forgive me, if I love thee also for thy fault. Yet, let the danger to which it betrayed thee, teach us still to walk in the strait path, and commit the keeping of our peace to the Almighty; for he that wanders in the maze of falsehood, shall pass by the good that he would meet, and shall meet the evil that he would shun. I also was tempted; but I was strengthenedto resist: if I had used the power, which I derived from the arts that have been practised against me, to return evil for evil; if I had not disdained a secret and unavowed revenge, and the unhallowed pleasures of a brutal appetite; I might have possessed thee in the form ofAlmoran, and have wronged irreparably myself and thee: for how could I have been admitted, asHamet, to the beauties which I had enjoyed asAlmoran? and how couldst thou have given, toAlmoran, what in reality had been appropriated byHamet?'CHAP. XVII.But whileAlmeidaandHametwere thus congratulating each other upon the evils which they had escaped, they were threatened by others, which, however obvious, they had overlooked.Almoran, who was now exulting in the prospect of success that had exceeded his hopes, and who supposed the possession ofAlmeidabefore the end of the next hour, was as certain as that the next hour would arrive, suddenly entered the apartment; but upon discoveringHamet, he startedback astonished and disappointed.Hametstood unmoved; and regarded him with a fixed and steady look, that at once reproached and confounded him. 'What treachery,' saidAlmoran, 'has been practised against me? What has brought thee to this place; and how hast thou gained admittance?' 'Against thy peace,' saidHamet, 'no treachery has been practised, but by thyself. By those arts in which thy vices have employed the powers of darkness, I have been brought hither; and by those arts I have gained admittance: thy form which they have imposed upon me, was my passport; and by the restoration of my own, I have detected and disappointed the fraud, which the double change was produced to execute.Almeida, whom, asHamet, thou couldst teach to hate thee, it is now impossible that, asAlmoran, thou shouldst teach to love.'Almeida, who perceived the storm to be gathering which the next moment would burst upon the head ofHamet, interposed between them, and addressed each of them by turns; urgingHametto be silent, and conjuringAlmoranto be merciful.Almoran, however, without regardingAlmeida, or making any reply toHamet, struck the ground with his foot, and the messengers of death, to whom the signal was familiar, appeared at the door.Almoranthen commanded them to seize his brother, with a countenance pale and livid, and avoice that was broken by rage.Hametwas still unmoved; butAlmeidathrew herself at the feet ofAlmoran, and embracing his knees was about to speak, but he broke from her with sudden fury: 'If the world should sue,' said he, 'I would spurn it off. There is no pang that cunning can invent, which he shall not suffer: and when death at length shall disappoint my vengeance, his mangled limbs shall be cast out unburied, to feed the beasts of the desert and the fowls of heaven.' During this menace,Almeidasunk down without signs of life; andHametstruggling in vain for liberty to raise her from the ground, she was carried off by some women who were called to her assistance.In this awful crisis,Hamet, who felt his own fortitude give way, looked up, and though he conceived no words, a prayer ascended from his heart to heaven, and was accepted by Him, to whom our thoughts are known while they are yet afar off. ForHamet, the fountain of strength was opened from above; his eye sparkled with confidence, and his breast was dilated by hope. He commanded the guard that were leading him away to stop, and they implicitly obeyed; he then stretched out his hand towardsAlmoran, whose spirit was rebuked before him: 'Hear me,' said he, 'thou tyrant! for it is thy genius that speaks by my voice. What has been the fruit of all thy guilt, but accumulated misery? What joy hast thouderived from undivided empire? what joy from the prohibition of my marriage withAlmeida? what good from that power, which some evil daemon has added to thy own? what, at this moment, is thy portion, but rage and anguish, disappointment, and despair? Even I, whom thou seest the captive of thy power, whom thou hast wronged of empire, and yet more of love; even I am happy, in comparison of thee. I know that my sufferings, however multiplied, are short, for they shall end with life, and no life is long: then shall the everlasting ages commence; and through everlasting ages thy sufferings shall increase. The moment is now near, when thou shalt tread that line which alone is the path toheaven, the narrow path that is stretched over the pit, which smokes for ever, and for ever! When thine aking eye shall look forward to the end that is far distant, and when behind thou shalt find no retreat; when thy steps shall faulter, and thou shalt tremble at the depth beneath, which thought itself is not able to fathom; then shall the angel of distribution lift his inexorable hand against thee: from the irremeable way shall thy feet be smitten; thou shalt plunge in the burning flood; and though thou shalt live for ever, thou shalt rise no more.'As the words ofHametstruckAlmoranwith terror, and over-awed him by an influence which he could not surmount;Hametwas forced from his presence, before any other orders had been given about him, than were implied in the menace that was addressed toAlmeida: no violence, therefore, was yet offered him; but he was secured, till the king's pleasure should be known, in a dungeon not far from the palace, to which he was conducted by a subterraneous passage; and the door being closed upon him, he was left in silence, darkness, and solitude, such as may be imagined before the voice of the Almighty produced light and life.WhenAlmoranwas sufficiently recollected to consider his situation, he despaired of prevailing uponAlmeidato gratify his wishes, till her attachment toHametwas irreparably broken;and he, therefore, resolved to put him to death. With this view, he repeated the signal, which convened the ministers of death to his presence; but the sound was lost in a peal of thunder that instantly followed it, and the Genius, from whom he received the talisman, again stood before him.'Almoran,' said the Genius, 'I am now compelled into thy presence by the command of a superior power; whom, if I should dare to disobey, the energy of his will might drive me, in a moment, beyond the limits of nature and the reach of thought, to spend eternity alone, without comfort, and without hope.' 'And what,' saidAlmoran, 'is the will of this mighty and tremendous being?' 'Hiswill,' said the Genius, 'I will reveal to thee. Hitherto, thou hast been enabled to lift the rod of adversity against thy brother, by powers which nature has not entrusted to man: as these powers, and these only, have put him into thy hand, thou art forbidden to lift it against his life; if thou hadst prevailed against him by thy own power, thy own power would not have been restrained: to afflict him thou art still free; but thou art not permitted to destroy. At the moment, in which thou shalt conceive a thought to cut him off by violence, the punishment of thy disobedience shall commence, and the pangs of death shall be upon thee.' 'If then,' saidAlmoran, 'this awful power is the friend ofHamet; what yetremains, in the stores of thy wisdom, for me? 'Till he dies, I am at once precluded from peace, and safety, and enjoyment.' 'Look up,' said the Genius, 'for the iron hand of despair is not yet upon thee. Thou canst be happy, only by his death; and his life thou art forbidden to take away: yet mayst thou still arm him against himself; and if he dies by his own hand, thy wishes will be full.' 'O name,' saidAlmoran, 'but the means, and it shall this moment be accomplished!' 'Select,' said the Genius, 'some friend—'At the name of friend,Almoranstarted and looked round in despair. He recollected the perfidy of Osmyn; and he suspected that, from the samecause, all were perfidious: 'WhileHamethas yet life,' said he, 'I fear the face of man, as of a savage that is prowling for his prey.' 'Relinquish not yet thy hopes,' said the Genius; 'for one, in whom thou wilt joyfully confide, may be found. Let him secretly obtain admittance toHamet, as if by stealth; let him profess an abhorrence of thy reign, and compassion for his misfortunes; let him pretend that the rack is even now preparing for him; that death is inevitable, but that torment may be avoided: let him then give him a poignard, as the instrument of deliverance; and, perhaps, his own hand may strike the blow, that shall give thee peace.' 'But who,' saidAlmoran, shall go upon this importanterrand?' 'Who,' replied the Genius, but thyself? Hast thou not the power to assume the form of whomsoever thou wouldst have sent?' 'I would have sent Osmyn,' saidAlmoran, 'but that I know him to be a traitor.' 'Let the form of Osmyn then,' said the Genius, 'be thine. The shadows of the evening have now stretched themselves upon the earth: command Osmyn to attend thee alone in the grove, where Solyman, thy father, was used to meditate by night; and when thy form shall be impressed upon him, I will there seal his eyes in sleep, till the charm shall be broken; so shall no evil be attempted against thee, and the transformation shall be known only to thyself.'Almoran, whose breast was again illuminated by hope, was about to express his gratitude and joy; but the Genius suddenly disappeared. He began, therefore, immediately to follow the instructions that he had received: he commanded Osmyn to attend him in the grove, and forbad every other to approach; by the power of the talisman he assumed his appearance, and saw him sink down in the supernatural slumber before him: he then quitted the place, and prepared to visitHametin the prison.CHAP. XVIII.The officer who commanded the guard that kept the gate of the prison, was Caled. He was now next in trust and power to Osmyn: but as he had proposed a revolt toHamet, in which Osmyn had refused to concur, he knew that his life was now in his power; he dreaded lest, for some slight offence, or in some fit of causeless displeasure, he should disclose the secret toAlmoran, who would then certainly condemn him to death. To secure this fatal secret, and put an end to his inquietude, he resolved,from the moment thatAlmoranwas established upon the throne, to find some opportunity secretly to destroy Osmyn: in this resolution, he was confirmed by the enmity, which inferior minds never fail to conceive against that merit, which they cannot but envy without spirit to emulate, and by which they feel themselves disgraced without an effort to acquire equal honour; it was confirmed also by the hope which Caled had conceived, that, upon the death of Osmyn, he should succeed to his post: his apprehensions likewise were increased, by the gloom which he remarked in the countenance of Osmyn; and which not knowing that it arose from fear, he imputed to jealousy and malevolence.WhenAlmoran, who had now assumed the appearance of Osmyn, had passed the subterranean avenue to the dungeon in whichHametwas confined, he was met by Caled; of whom he demanded admittance to the prince, and produced his own signet, as a testimony that he came with the authority of the king. As it was Caled's interest to secure the favour of Osmyn till an opportunity should offer to cut him off, he received him with every possible mark of respect and reverence; and when he was gone into the dungeon, he commanded a beverage to be prepared for him against he should return, in which such spices were infused, as might expel the malignity which, in that place, might be received with the breath of life; and taking himself thekey of the prison, he waited at the door.WhenAlmoranentered the dungeon, with a lamp which he had received from Caled, he foundHametsitting upon the ground: his countenance was impressed with the characters of grief; but it retained no marks either of anger or fear. When he looked up, and saw the features of Osmyn, he judged that the mutes were behind him; and, therefore, rose up, to prepare himself for death.Almoranbeheld his calmness and fortitude with the involuntary praise of admiration; yet persisted in his purpose without remorse. 'I am come,' said he, by the command ofAlmoran, to denounce that fate, the bitterness ofwhich I will enable thee to avoid.' 'And what is there,' saidHamet, 'in my fortunes, that has prompted thee to the danger of this attempt?' 'The utmost that I can give thee,' saidAlmoran, 'I can give thee without danger to myself: but though I have been placed, by the hand of fortune, near the person of the tyrant, yet has my heart in secret been thy friend. If I am the messenger of evil, impute it to him only by whom it is devised. The rack is now preparing to receive thee; and every art of ingenious cruelty will be exhausted to protract and to increase the agonies of death.' 'And what,' saidHamet, 'can thy friendship offer me?' 'I can offer thee,' saidAlmoran, 'that which will at once dismissthee to those regions, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary rest for ever.' He then produced the poignard from his bosom; and presenting it toHamet, 'Take this,' said he, 'and sleep in peace.'Hamet, whose heart was touched with sudden joy at the sight of so unexpected a remedy for every evil, did not immediately reflect, that he was not at liberty to apply it: he snatched it in a transport from the hand ofAlmoran, and expressed his sense of the obligation by clasping him in his arms, and shedding the tears of gratitude in his breast. 'Be quick,' saidAlmoran: this moment I must leave thee; and in the next, perhaps, the messengers of destruction may bind thee to therack. 'I will be quick,' saidHamet; 'and the sigh that shall last linger upon my lips, shall bless thee.' They then bid each other farewel:Almoranretired from the dungeon, and the door was again closed uponHamet.Caled, who waited at the door till the supposed Osmyn should return, presented him with the beverage which he had prepared, of which he recounted the virtues; andAlmoranreceived it with pleasure, and having eagerly drank it off, returned to the palace. As soon as he was alone, he resumed his own figure, and fate, with a confident and impatient expectation, that in a short time a messenger would be dispatched to acquaint him with the deathofHamet.Hamet, in the mean time, having grasped the dagger in his hand, and raised his arm for the blow, 'This,' said he, 'is my passport to the realms of peace, the immediate and only object of my hope!' But at these words, his mind instantly took the alarm: 'Let me reflect,' said he, 'a moment: from what can I derive hope in death?—from that patient and persevering virtue, and from that alone, by which we fulfill the task that is assigned us upon the earth. Is it not our duty, to suffer, as well as to act? If my own hand consigns me to the grave, what can it do but perpetuate that misery, which, by disobedience, I would shun? what can it do, but cut off my life and hope together?' With this reflectionhe threw the dagger from him; and stretching himself again upon the ground, resigned himself to the disposal of the Father of man, most Merciful and Almighty.Almoran, who had now resolved to send for the intelligence which he longed to hear, was dispatching a messenger to the prison, when he was told that Caled desired admittance to his presence. At the name of Caled, he started up in an extasy of joy; and not doubting but thatHametwas dead, he ordered him to be instantly admitted. When he came in,Almoranmade no enquiry aboutHamet, because he would not appear to expect the event, which yet he supposed he had brought about; he, therefore,asked him only upon what business he came. 'I come, my lord,' said he, 'to apprize thee of the treachery of Osmyn.' 'I know,' saidAlmoran, 'that Osmyn is a traitor; but of what dost thou accuse him? 'As I was but now,' said he, 'changing the guard which is set uponHamet, Osmyn came up to the door of the prison, and producing the royal signet demanded admittance. As the command which I received, when he was delivered to my custody, was absolute, that no foot should enter, I doubted whether the token had not been obtained, by fraud, for some other purpose; yet, as he required admittance only, I complied: but that if any treachery had been contrived, I might detect it; and that no artificemight be practised to favour an escape; I waited myself at the door, and listening to their discourse I overheard the treason that I suspected.' 'What then,' saidAlmoran, 'didst thou hear?' 'A part of what was said,' replied Caled, 'escaped me: but I heard Osmyn, like a perfidious and presumptuous slave, callAlmorana tyrant; I heard him profess an inviolable friendship forHamet, and assure him of deliverance. What were the means, I know not; but he talked of speed, and supposed that the effect was certain.'Almoran, though he was still impatient to hear ofHamet; and discovered, that if he was dead, his death was unknown to Caled; was yetnotwithstanding rejoiced at what he heard: and as he knew what Caled told him to be true, as the conversation he related had passed between himself andHamet, he exulted in the pleasing confidence that he had yet a friend; the glooms of suspicion, which had involved his mind, were dissipated, and his countenance brightened with complacency and joy. He had delayed to put Osmyn to death, only because he could appoint no man to succeed him, of whom his fears did not render him equally suspicious: but having now found, in Caled, a friend, whose fidelity had been approved when there had been no intention to try it; and being impatient to reward his zeal, and to invest his fidelity with that power, which would render his services mostimportant; he took a ring from his own finger, and putting it upon that of Caled, 'Take this,' said he, 'as a pledge, that to-morrow Osmyn shall lose his head; and that, from this moment, thou art invested with his power.'Caled having, in the conversation betweenAlmoranandHamet, discerned indubitable treachery, which he imputed to Osmyn whose appearanceAlmoranhad then assumed, eagerly seized the opportunity to destroy him; he, therefore, not trusting to the event of his accusation, had mingled poison in the bowl which he presented toAlmoranwhen he came out fromHamet: this, however, at first he had resolved to conceal.In consequence of his accusation, he supposed Osmyn would be questioned upon the rack; he supposed also, that the accusation, as it was true, would be confirmed by his confession; that what ever he should then say to the prejudice of his accuser, would be disbelieved; and that when after a few hours the poison should take effect, no inquisition would be made into the death of a criminal, whom the bow-string or the scimitar would otherwise have been employed to destroy. But he now hoped to derive new merit from an act of zeal, whichAlmoranhad approved before it was known, by condemning his rival to die, whose death he had already insured: 'May the wishes of my lord,' said he, 'be always anticipated; and may it befound, that whatever he ordains is already done: may he accept the zeal of his servant, whom he has delighted to honour; for, before the light of the morning shall return, the eyes of Osmyn shall close in everlasting darkness.'At these words, the countenance ofAlmoranchanged; his cheeks became pale, and his lips trembled: 'What then,' said he, 'hast thou done?' Caled, who was terrified and astonished, threw himself upon the ground, and was unable to reply.Almoran, who now, by the utmost effort of his mind, restrained his confusion and his fear, that he might learn the truth from Caled without dissimulation or disguise, raised him from theground and repeated his enquiry. 'If I have erred,' said Caled, 'impute it not: when I had detected the treachery of Osmyn, I was transported by my zeal for thee. For proof that he is guilty, I appeal now to himself; for he yet lives: but that he might not escape the hand of justice, I mingled, in the bowl I give him, the drugs of death.'At these words,Almoran, striking his hands together, looked upward in an agony of despair and horror, and fell back upon a sofa that was behind him. Caled, whose astonishment was equal to his disappointment and his fears, approached him with a trembling though hasty pace; but as he stooped to support him,Almoransuddenly drew his dagger and stabbed him to the heart; and repeated the blow with reproaches and execrations, till his strength failed him.

In the mean time,Hamet, to whom his own safety was of no importance but for the sake ofAlmeida, resolved, if possible, to conceal himself near the city. Having, therefore, reached the confines of the desert, by which it was bounded on the east, he quitted his horse, and determined to remain there till the multitude was dispersed; and the darkness of the evening might conceal his return, when in less than an hour he could reach the palace.

He sat down at the foot of the mountain Kabessed, without considering,that in this place he was most likely to be found, as those who travel the desert seldom fail to enter the cave that winds its way under the mountain, to drink of the water that issues there from a clear and copious spring.

He reviewed the scenes of the day that was now nearly passed, with a mixture of astonishment and distress, to which no description can be equal The sudden and amazing change that a few hours had made in his situation, appeared like a wild and distressful dream, from which he almost doubted whether he should not wake to the power and the felicity that he had lost. He sat some time bewildered in the hurry and multiplicity of his thoughts, and at length burst out into passionateexclamations: 'What,' says he, 'and where am I? Am I, indeed,Hamet; that son of Solyman who divided the dominion of Persia with his brother, and who possessed the love ofAlmeidaalone? Dreadful vicissitude! I am now an outcast, friendless and forlorn; without an associate, and without a dwelling: for me the cup of adversity overflows, and the last dregs of sorrow have been wrung out for my portion: the powers not only of the earth, but of the air, have combined against me; and how can I stand alone before them? But is there no power that will interpose in my behalf? If He, who is supreme, is good, I shall not perish. But wherefore am I thus? Why should the desires of vice beaccomplished by superior powers; and why should superior powers be permitted to disappoint the expectations of virtue? Yet let me not rashly question the ways of Him, in whose balance the world is weighed: by Him, every evil is rendered subservient to good; and by His wisdom, the happiness of the whole is secured. Yet I am but a part only, and for a part only I can feel. To me, what is that goodness of which I do not partake? In my cup the gall is unmixed; and have I not, therefore, a right to complain? But what have I said? Let not the gloom that surrounds me, hide from me the prospect of immortality. Shall not eternity atone for time? Eternity, to which the duration of ages is butas an atom to a world! Shall I not, when this momentary separation is past, again meetAlmeidato part no more? and shall not a purer flame than burns upon the earth, unite us? Even at this moment, her mind, which not the frauds of sorcery can taint or alienate, is mine: that pleasure which she reserved for me, cannot be taken by force; it is in the consent alone that it subsists; and from the joy that she feels, and from that only, proceeds the joy she can bestow.'

With these reflections he soothed the anguish of his mind, till the dreadful moment arrived, in which the power of the talisman took place, and the figure ofAlmoranwas changed intothat ofHamet, and the figure ofHametinto that ofAlmoran.

At the moment of transformation,Hametwas seized with a sudden languor, and his faculties were suspended as by the stroke of death. When he recovered, his limbs still trembled, and his lips were parched with thirst: he rose, therefore, and entering the cavern, at the mouth of which he had been sitting, he stooped over the well to drink; but glancing his eyes upon the water, he saw, with astonishment and horror, that it reflected, not his own countenance, but that of his brother. He started back from the prodigy; and supporting himself against the side of the rock, he stood some time like a statue, without the powerof recollection: but at length the thought suddenly rushed into his mind, that the same sorcery which had suspended his marriage, and driven him from the throne was still practised against him; and that the change of his figure to that ofAlmoran, was the effect ofAlmoran'shaving assumed his likeness, to obtain, in this disguise, whateverAlmeidacould bestow. This thought, like a whirlwind of the desert, totally subverted his mind; his fortitude was borne down, and his hopes were rooted up; no principles remained to regulate his conduct, but all was phrensy, confusion, and despair. He rushed out of the cave with a furious and distracted look; and went in haste towards the city, without having formed any design,or considered any consequence that might follow.

The shadows of the mountains were now lengthened by the declining sun; and the approach of evening had invitedOmarto meditate in a grove, that was adjacent to the gardens of the palace. From this place he was seen at some distance byHamet, who came up to him with a hasty and disordered pace; andOmardrew back with a cold and distant reverence, which the power and the character ofAlmoranconcurred to excite.Hamet, not reflecting upon the cause of this behaviour, was offended, and reproached him with the want of that friendship he had so often professed: the vehemence, of his expression and demeanor, suited well withthe appearance ofAlmoran; andOmar, as the best proof of that friendship which had been impeached, took this opportunity to repeat his admonitions in the behalf ofHamet: 'What ever evil,' said he, 'thou canst bring uponHamet, will be doubled to thyself: to his virtues, the Power that fills infinitude is a friend, and he can be afflicted only till they are perfect; but thy sufferings will be the punishment of vice, and as long as thou are vicious they must increase.

Hamet, who instantly recollected for whom he was mistaken, and the anguish of whose mind was for a moment suspended by this testimony of esteem and kindness, which could not possibly be feigned, and which waspaid him at the risque of life, when it could not be known that he received it; ran forward to embrace the hoary sage, who had been the guide of his youth, and cried out, in a voice that was broken by contending passions, 'The face is the face ofAlmoran, but the heart is the heart ofHamet.'

Omarwas struck dumb with astonishment; andHamet, who was impatient to be longer mistaken, related all the circumstances of his transformation, and reminded him of some particulars which could be known only to themselves: 'Canst thou not yet believe,' said he, 'that I amHamet? when thou hast this day seen me banished from my kingdom; when thou hast now met me a fugitivereturning from the desert; and when I learnt from thee, since the sun was risen which is not yet set, that more than mortal powers were combined against me.' 'I now believe,' saidOmar, 'that thou, indeed, artHamet.' 'Stay me not then,' saidHamet; 'but come with me to revenge.' 'Beware,' saidOmar, 'lest thou endanger the loss of more than empire andAlmeida.' 'If not to revenge,' saidHamet,' I may at least be permitted to punish.' 'Thy mind,' saysOmar, 'is now in such a state, that to punish the crimes by which thou hast been wronged, will dip thee in the guilt of blood. Why else are we forbidden to take vengeance for ourselves? and why is it reserved as the prerogative of theMost High? In Him, and in Him alone, it is goodness guided by wisdom: He approves the means, only as necessary to the end; He wounds only to heal, and destroys only to save; He has complacence, not in the evil, but in the good only which it is appointed to produce. Remember, therefore, that he, to whom the punishment of another is sweet; though his act may be just with respect to others, with respect to himself it is a deed of darkness, and abhorred by the Almighty.'Hamet, who had stood abstracted in the contemplation of the new injury he had suffered, whileOmarwas persuading him not to revenge it, started from his posture in all the wildness of distraction;and bursting away fromOmar, with an ardent and furious look hasted toward the palace, and was soon out of sight.

In the mean time,Almoran, after having effected the transformation, was met, as he was going to the apartment ofAlmeida, by Osmyn. Osmyn had already experienced the misery of dependent greatness, that kept him continually under the eye of a capricious tyrant, whose temper was various as the gales of summer, and whose anger was sudden as the bolt of heaven; whose purpose and passions were dark and impetuous as the midnight storm, and at whose command death was inevitable as the approach of time. Whenhe sawAlmoran, therefore, in the likeness ofHamet, he felt a secret desire to apprize him of his situation, and offer him his friendship.

Almoran, who with the form assumed the manners ofHamet, addressed Osmyn with a mild though mournful countenance: 'At length,' said he, 'the will ofAlmoranalone is law; does it permit me to hold a private rank in this place, without molestation?' 'It permits,' said Osmyn, 'yet more; he has commanded, that you should have admittance toAlmeida.'Almoran, whose vanity betrayed him to flatter his own power in the person ofHamet, replied with a smile: 'I know, thatAlmoran, who presides like a God in silentand distant state, reveals the secrets of his will to thee; I know that thou art'—'I am,' said Osmyn, 'of all thou seest, most wretched.' At this declaration,Almoranturned short, and fixed his eyes upon Osmyn with a look of surprize and anger: 'Does not the favour ofAlmoran,' said he, 'whose smile is power, and wealth, and honour, shine upon thee?' 'My lord,' said Osmyn, 'I know so well the severity of thy virtue, that if I should, even for thy sake, become perfidious to thy brother'—Almoran, who was unable to preserve the character ofHametwith propriety, interrupted him with a fierce and haughty tone: 'How!' said he, 'perfidious tomy brother! toAlmoranperfidious!'

Osmyn, who had now gone too far to recede, and who still saw before him the figure ofHamet, proceeded in his purpose: 'I knew,' said he, 'that in thy judgment I should be condemned; and yet, the preservation of life is the strongest principle of nature, and the love of virtue is her proudest boast.' 'Explain thyself,' saidAlmoran, 'for I cannot comprehend thee.' 'I mean,' said Osmyn, 'that he, whose life depends upon the caprice of a tyrant, is like the wretch whose sentence is already pronounced; and who, if the wind does but rush by his dungeon, imagines that it is the bow-string and themute.' 'Fear not,' saidAlmoran, who now affected to be again calm; 'be still faithful, and thou shalt still be safe.' 'Alas!' said Osmyn, there is no diligence, no toil, no faith, that can secure the slave from the sudden phrensy of passion, from, the causeless rage either of drunkenness or lust. I am that slave; the slave of a tyrant whom I hate.' The confusion ofAlmoranwas now too great to be concealed, and he stood silent with rage, fear, and indignation. Osmyn, supposing that his wonder suspended his belief of what he had heard, confirmed his declaration by an oath.

Whoever thou art, to whose mindAlmoran, the mighty and the proud,is present; before whom, the lord of absolute dominion stands trembling and rebuked; who seest the possessor of power by which nature is controuled, pale and silent with anguish and disappointment: if, in the fury of thy wrath, thou hast aggravated weakness into guilt; if thou hast chilled the glow of affection, when it flushed the cheek in thy presence, with the frown of displeasure, or repressed the ardour of friendship with indifference or neglect; now, let thy heart smite thee: for, in thy folly, thou hast cast away that gem, which is the light of life; which power can never seize, and which gold can never buy!

The tyrant fell at once from his pride, like a star from Heaven; andOsmyn, still addressing him asHamet, at once increased his misery and his fears: 'O,' said he, 'that the throne of Persia was thine! then should innocence enjoy her birth-right of peace, and hope should bid honest industry look upward. There is not one to whomAlmoranhas delegated power, nor one on whom his transient favour has bestowed any gift, who does not already feel his heart throb with the pangs of boding terror. Nor is there one who, if he did not fear the displeasure of the invisible power by whom the throne has been given to thy brother, would not immediately revolt to thee.'

Almoran, who had hitherto remained silent, now burst into a passionateexclamation of self pity: 'What can I do?' said he; 'and whither can I turn?' Osmyn, who mistook the cause of his distress, and supposed that he deplored only his want of power to avail himself of the general disposition in his favour, endeavoured to fortify his mind against despair: 'Your state,' said he, 'indeed is distressful, but not hopeless.' The king who, though addressed as,Hamet, was still betrayed by his confusion to answer asAlmoran, smote his breast, and replied in an agony, 'It is hopeless!' Osmyn remarked his emotion and despair, with, a concern and astonishment thatAlmoranobserved, and at once recollected his situation. He endeavoured to retract such expressions of trouble and despondency,as did not suit the character he hid assumed; and telling Osmyn that he thanked him for his friendship; and would improve the advantages it offered him, he directed him to acquaint the eunuchs that they were to admit him toAlmeida. When he was left alone; his doubts and perplexity held him long in suspense; a thousand expedients occurred to his mind by turns, and by turns were rejected.

His first thought was to put Osmyn to death: but he considered; that by this he would gain no advantage, as he would be in equal danger from whoever should succeed him: he considered also, that against Osmyn he was upon his guard; and that he might at any time learn, from him, whateverdesign might be formed in favour ofHamet, by assumingHamet'sappearance: that he would thus be the confident of every secret, in which his own safety was concerned; and might disconcert the best contrived project at the very moment of its execution, when it would be too late for other measures to be taken: he determined, therefore, to let Osmyn live; at least, till it became more necessary to cut him off. Having in some degree soothed and fortified his mind by these reflections, he entered the apartment ofAlmeida.

His hope was not founded upon a design to marry her under the appearance ofHamet; for that would be impossible, as the ceremony must have been performed by the priests who supposedthe marriage withHametto have been forbidden by a divine command; and who, therefore, would not have consented, even supposing they would otherwise have ventured, at the request ofHamet, to perform a ceremony which they knew would be displeasing toAlmoran: but he hoped to take advantage of her tenderness for his brother, and the particular circumstances of her situation, which made the solemnities of marriage impossible, to seduce her to gratify his desires, without the sanction which alone rendered the gratification of them lawful: if he succeeded in this design, he had reason to expert, either that his love would be extinguished by enjoyment; or that, if he should still desire to marryAlmeida, he might, by disclosing to her the artifice by which he hadeffected his purpose, prevail upon her to consent, as her connexion withHamet, the chief obstacle to her marriage with him, would then be broken for ever; and as she might, perhaps, wish to sanctify the pleasure which she might be not unwilling to repeat, or at least to make that lawful which it would not be in her power to prevent.

In this disposition, and with this design, he was admitted toAlmeida; who, without suspicion of her danger, was exposed to the severest trial, in which every passion concurred to oppose her virtue: she was solicited by all the powers of subtilty and desire, under the appearance of a lover whose tenderness and fidelity had been long tried, and whose passion she returned withequal constancy and ardour; and she was thus solicited, when the rites which alone could consecrate their union, were impossible, and were rendered impossible by the guilty designs of a rival, in whose power she was, and from whom no other expedient offered her a deliverance. Thus deceived and betrayed, she received him with an excess of tenderness and joy, which flattered all his hopes, and for a moment suspended his misery. She enquired, with a fond and gentle solicitude, by what means he had gained admittance, and how he had provided for his retreat. He received and returned her caresses with a vehemence, in which, to less partial eyes, desire would have been more apparent than love; and in the tumult of his passion, he almost neglected herenquiries: finding, however, that she would be answered, he told her, that being by the permission ofAlmoranadmitted to every part of the palace, except that of the women, he had found means to bribe the eunuch who kept the door; who was not in danger of detection, becauseAlmoran, wearied with the tumult and fatigue of the day, had retired to sleep, and given order to be called at a certain hour. She then complained of the felicitations to which she was exposed, expressed her dread of the consequences she had reason to expect from some sudden sally of the tyrant's rage, and related with tears the brutal outrage she had suffered when he last left her. 'Though I abhorred him,' said she, 'I yet kneeled before him for thee.Let me bend in reverence to that Power, at whose look the whirlwinds are silent, and the seas are calm, that his fury has hitherto been restrained from hurting thee!'

At these words, the face ofAlmoranwas again covered with the blushes of confusion: to be still beloved only asHamet, and asAlmoranto be still hated; to be thus reproached without anger, and wounded by those who knew not that they struck him; was a species of misery peculiar to himself, and had been incurred only by the acquisition of new powers, which he had requested and received as necessary to obtain that felicity, which the parsimony of nature had placed beyond his reach. His emotions, however, as byAlmeidathey were supposed to be the emotions ofHamet, she imputed to a different cause: 'As Heaven,' says she, 'has preserved thee from death; so has it, for thy sake, preserved me from violation.'Almoran, whose passion had in this interval again surmounted his remorse, gazed eagerly upon her, and catching her to his bosom; 'Let us at least,' says he, 'secure the happiness that is now offered; let not these inestimable moments pass by us unimproved; but to shew that we deserve them, let them be devoted to love.' 'Let us then,' saidAlmeida, 'escape together.' 'To escape with thee,' said:Almoran, 'is impossible. I shall retire, and, like the shaft of Arabia, leave no mark behind, me; but theflight ofAlmeidawill at once be traced to him by whom I was admitted, and I shall thus retaliate his friendship with destruction.' 'Let him then,' saidAlmeida, 'be the partner of our flight.' 'Urge it not now,' saidAlmoran; 'but trust to my prudence and my love, to select some hour that will be more favourable to our purpose. And yet,' said he, 'even then, we shall, as now, sigh in vain for the completion of our wishes: by whom shall our hands be joined, when in the opinion of the priests it has been forbidden from above?' 'Save thyself then,' saidAlmeida, and leave me to my fate.' 'Not so,' saidAlmoran. 'What else,' repliedAlmeida, 'is in our power?' 'It is in our power,' saidAlmoran, 'to seize that joy, to which a public form can give us no new claim; for the public form can only declare that right by which I claim it now.'

As they were now reclining upon a sofa, he threw his arm round her; but she suddenly sprung up, and burst from him: the tear started to her eye, and she gazed upon him with an earnest but yet tender look: 'Is it?' says she—'No sure, it is not the voice ofHamet!' 'O! yes,' saidAlmoran, 'what other voice should call thee to cancel at once the wrongs ofHametandAlmeida; to secure the treasures of thy love from the hand of the robber; to hide, the joys, which if now we lose we may lose for ever, in thesacred and inviolable stores of the past, and place them beyond the power not ofAlmoranonly but of fate?' With this wild effusion of desire, he caught her again to his breast, and finding no resistance his heart exulted in his success; but the next moment, to the total disappointment of his hopes, he perceived that she had fainted in his arms. When she recovered, she once more disengaged herself from him, and turning away her face, she burst into tears. When her voice could be heard, she covered herself with her veil, and turning again towards him, 'All but this,' said she, 'I had learnt to bear; and how has this been deserved byAlmeidaofHamet? You was my only solace in distress; and when the tears have stolen from my eyes in silenceand in solitude, I thought on thee; I thought upon the chaste ardour of thy sacred friendship, which was softened, refined, and exalted into love. This was my hoarded treasure; and the thoughts of possessing this; soothed all my anguish with a miser's happiness, who, blest in the consciousness of hidden wealth, despises cold and hunger, and rejoices in the midst of all the miseries that make poverty dreadful: this was my last retreat; but I am now desolate and forlorn, and my soul looks round, with terror, for that refuge which it can never find.' 'Find that refuge,' saidAlmoran, 'in me.' 'Alas!' saidAlmeida, 'can he afford me refuge from my sorrows, who, for the guilty pleasures of a transient moment,would forever sully the purity of my mind, and aggravate misfortune by the consciousness of guilt?'

AsAlmorannow perceived, that it was impossible, by any importunity, to induce her to violate her principles; he had nothing more to attempt, but to subvert them. 'When,' said he, 'shallAlmeidaawake, and these dreams of folly and superstition vanish? That only is virtue, by which happiness is produced; and whatever produces happiness, is therefore virtue; and the forms, and words and rites, which priests have pretended to be required by Heaven, are the fraudful arts only by which they govern mankind.'

Almeida, by this impious insult, was roused from grief to indignation: 'As thou hast now dared,' said she, 'to deride the laws, which thou wouldst first have broken; so hast thou broken for ever the tender bonds, by which my soul was united to thine. Such as I fondly believed thee, thou art not; and what thou art, I have never loved. I have loved a delusive phantom only, which, while I strove to grasp it, has vanished from me.'Almoranattempted to reply; but on such a subject, neither her virtue nor her wisdom would permit debate. 'That prodigy,' said she, 'which I thought was the sleight of cunning, or the work of sorcery, I now revere as the voice of Heaven; which, as it knew thy heart,has in mercy saved me from thy arms. To the will of Heaven shall my will be obedient; and my voice also shall pronounce, toAlmoranAlmeida.'

Almoran, whose whole soul was now suspended in attention, conceived new hopes of success; and foresaw the certain accomplishment of his purpose, though by an effect directly contrary to that which he had laboured to produce. Thus to have incurred the hatred ofAlmeidain the form ofHamet, was more fortunate than to have taken advantage of her love; the path that led to his wishes was now clear and open; and his marriage withAlmeidain his own person, waited only till he could resume it. He, therefore,instead of soothing, provoked her resentment: 'If thou hast loved a phantom,' said he, 'which existed only in imagination; on such a phantom my love also has been fixed: thou hast, indeed, only the form of what I calledAlmeida; my love thou hast rejected, because thou hast never loved; the object of thy passion was notHamet, but a throne; and thou hast made the observance of rituals, in which folly only can suppose there is good or ill, a pretence to violate thy faith, that thou mayst still gratify thy ambition.'

To this injurious reproach,Almeidamade no reply; andAlmoranimmediately quitted her apartment, that he might reassume his own figure,take advantage of the disposition which, under the appearance ofHamet, he had produced in favour of himself: But Osmyn, who supposing him to beHamet, had intercepted and detained him as he was going toAlmeida, now intercepted him a second time at his return, having placed himself near the door of the apartment for that purpose.

Osmyn was by no means satisfied with the issue of their last interview: he had perceived a perturbation in the mind ofAlmoran, for which, imagining him to beHamet, he could not account; and which seemed more extraordinary upon a review, than when it happened; he, therefore, again entered into conversation with him, in which hefarther disclosed his sentiments and designs.Almoran, notwithstanding the impatience natural to his temper and situation, was thus long detained listening to Osmyn, by the united influence of his curiosity and his fears; his enquiries still alarmed him with new terrors, by discovering new objects of distrust, and new instances of disaffection: still, however, he resolved, not yet to remove Osmyn from his post, that he might give no alarm by any appearance of suspicion, and consequently learn with more ease; and detect with more certainty, any project that might be formed against him.

Almeida, as soon as she was left alone, began to review the scene that had just past; and was every moment affected with new wonder, grief, and resentment. She now deplored her own misfortune; and now conceived a design to punish the author of it, from whose face she supposed the hand of adversity had torn the mask under which he had deceived her: it appeared to her very easy, to take a severe revenge uponHametfor the indignity which she supposed he had offered her, by complaining of ittoAlmoran; and telling him, that he had gained admittance to her by bribing the eunuch who kept the door. The thought of thus giving him up, was one moment rejected, as arising from a vindictive spirit; and the next indulged, as an act of justice toAlmoran, and a punishment due to the hypocrisy ofHamet: to the first she inclined, when her grief, which was still mingled with a tender remembrance of the man she loved, was predominant; and to the last, when her grief gave way to indignation.

Thus are we inclined to consider the same action, either as a virtue, or a vice, by the influence of different passions, which prompt us either to perform or to avoid it.Almeida, from deliberatingwhether she should accuseHamettoAlmoran, or conceal his fault, was led to consider what punishment he would either incur or escape in consequence of her determination; and the images that rushed into her mind, the moment this became the object of her thoughts, at once determined her to be silent: 'Could I bear to see,' said she, 'that hand, which has so often trembled with delight when it enfolded mine, convulsed and black! those eyes, that as often as they gazed upon me were dissolved in tears of tenderness and love, start from the sockets! and those lips that breathed the softest sighs of elegant desire, distorted and gasping in the convulsions of death!'

From this image, her mind recoiled in an agony of terror and pity; her heart sunk within her; her limbs trembled she sunk down upon the sofa, and burst into tears.

By this time,Hamet, on whose form the likeness ofAlmoranwas still impressed, had reached the palace. He went instantly towards the apartment of the women. Instead of that chearful alacrity, that mixture of zeal and reverence and affection, which his eye had been used to find where-ever it was turned, he now observed confusion, anxiety and terror; whoever he met, made haste to prostrate themselves before him, and feared to look up till he was past. He went on, however, with a hasty pace; and coming upto the eunuch's guard, he said with an impatient tone; 'ToAlmeida.' The slave immediately made way before him, and conducted him to the door of the apartment, which he would not otherwise have been able to find, and for which he could not directly enquire.

When he entered, his countenance expressed all the passions that his situation had roused in his mind. He first looked sternly round him, to see whetherAlmoranwas not present; and then fetching a deep sigh he turned his eyes, with a look of mournful tenderness, uponAlmeida. His first view was to discover, whetherAlmoranhad already supplanted him; and for this purpose he collected the whole strengthof his mind: he considered that he appeared now, not asHamet, but asAlmoran; and that he was to questionAlmeidaconcerningAlmoran, while she had mistaken him forHamet; he was therefore to maintain the character, at whatever expence, till his doubts were resolved, and his fears either removed or confirmed: he was so firmly persuaded, thatAlmoranhad been there before him, that he did not ask the question, but supposed the fact; he restrained alike both his tenderness and his fears; and looking earnestly uponAlmeida, who had risen up in his presence with blushes and confusion, 'To me,' says he, 'isAlmeidastill cold? and has she lavished all her love uponHamet?'

At the name ofHamet, the blushes and confusion ofAlmeidaincreased: her mind was still full of the images, which had risen from the thought of whatHametmight suffer, ifAlmoranshould know that he had been with her; and though she feared that their interview was discovered, yet she hoped it might be only suspected, and in that case the removal or confirmation of the suspicions, on which the fate ofHametdepended, would devolve upon her.

In this situation, she, who a few moments before doubted, whether she should not voluntarily give him up, when nothing more was necessary for his safety than to be silent; now determined, with whatever reluctance,to secure him, though it could not he done without dissimulation, and though it was probable that in this dissimulation she would be detected. Instead, therefore, of answering the question, she repeated it: 'On whom said my lord, onHamet?'Hamet, whose suspicions were increased by the evasion, replied with great emotion, 'Aye, onHamet; did he not this moment leave you?' 'Leave me this moment?' saidAlmeida, with yet greater confusion, and deeper blushes.Hamet, in the impatience of his jealousy, concluded, that the passions which he saw expressed in her countenance, and which arose from the struggle between her regard to truth and her tenderness forHamet, proceededfrom the consciousness of what he had most reason to dread, and she to conceal, a breach of virtue, to which she had been betrayed by his own appearance united with the vices of his brother: he, therefore, drew back from her with a look of inexpressible anguish, and stood some time silent. She observed, that in his countenance there was more expression of trouble, than rage; she, therefore, hoped to divert him from persuing his enquiries, by at once removing his jealousy; which she supposed would be at an end, as soon as she should disclose the resolution she had taken in his favour. Addressing him, therefore, asAlmoran, with a voice which though it was gentle and soothing, was yet mournful and tremulous; 'Do not turn from me,' said she,with those unfriendly and frowning looks; give me now that love which so lately you offered, and with all the future I will atone the past.'

UponHamet, whose heart involuntarily answered to the voice ofAlmeida, these words had irresistible and instantaneous force; but recollecting, in a moment, whose form he bore, and to whom they were addressed, they struck him with new astonishment, and increased the torments of his mind. Supposing what he at first feared had happened, and thatAlmoranhad seduced her asHamet; he could not account for her now addressing him, asAlmoran, with words of favour and compliance: he, therefore, renewed his enquiries concerning himself, with apprehensionsof a different kind. She, who was still solicitous to put an end to the enquiry, as well for the sake ofHamet, as to prevent her own embarrassment, replied with a sigh, 'Let not thy peace be interrupted by one thought ofHamet; for ofHametAlmeidashall think no more.'Hamet, who, though he had fortified himself against whatever might have happened to her person, could not bear the alienation of her mind, cried our, with looks of distraction and a voice scarcely human, 'Not think ofHamet!'Almeida, whose astonishment was every moment increasing, replied, with a tender and interesting enquiry, 'IsAlmoranthen offended, thatAlmeidamould think ofHametno more?'Hamet, being thusaddressed by the name of his brother, again recollected his situation; and now first conceived the idea, that the alteration ofAlmeida'ssentiments with respect to himself, might be the effect of some violence offered her byAlmoranin his likeness; he, therefore, recurred to his first purpose, and determined, by a direct enquiry, to discover whether she had seen him under that appearance. This enquiry he urged with the utmost solemnity and ardour, in terms suitable to his present appearance and situation: 'Tell me,' said he, 'have these doors been open toHamet? Has he obtained possession of that treasure, which, by the voice of Heaven, has been allotted to me?'

To this double question,Almeidaanswered by a single negative; and her answer, therefore, was both false and true: it was true that her person was still inviolate, and it was true also thatHamethad not been admitted to her; yet her denial of it was false, for she believed the contrary;Almoranonly had been admitted, but she had received him as his brother.Hamet, however, was satisfied with the answer, and did not discover its fallacy. He looked up to Heaven, with an expression of gratitude and joy; and then turning toAlmeida, 'Swear then,' said he, 'that thou hast granted toHamet, no pledge of thy love which should be reserved for me.'Almeida, who now thought nothing more than the asseveration necessary to quiethis mind, immediately complied: 'I swear,' said she, 'that toHametI have given nothing, which thou wouldst wish me to with-hold: the power that has devoted my person to thee, has disunited my heart fromHamet, whom I renounce in thy presence for ever.'

Hamet, whose fortitude and recollection were again overborne, was thrown into an agitation of mind, which discovered itself by looks and gestures very different from those whichAlmeidahad expected, and overwhelmed her with new confusion and disappointment: that he, who had so lately solicited her love with all the vehemence of a desire impatient to be gratified, should now receive a declarationthat she was ready to comply with marks of distress and anger, was a mystery which she could not solve. In the mean time, the struggle in his breast became every moment more violent: 'Where then,' said he, 'is the constancy which you vowed toHamet; and for what instance of his love is he now forsaken?'

Almeidawas now more embarrassed than before; she felt all the force of the reproof, supposing it to have been given byAlmoran; and she could be justified only by relating the particular, which at the expence of her sincerity she had determined to conceal.Almoranwas now exalted in her opinion, while his form was animated by the spirit ofHamet; as much asHamethad been degraded, while his form was animated by the spirit ofAlmoran. In his resentment of her perfidy to his rival, though it favoured his fondest and most ardent wishes, there was an abhorrence of vice, and a generosity of mind, which she supposed to have been incompatible with his character. To his reproach, she could reply only by complaint; and could no otherwise evade his question, than by observing the inconsistency of his own behaviour: 'Your words,' said she, 'are daggers to my heart. You condemn me for a compliance with your own wishes; and for obedience to that voice, which you supposed to have revealed the will of Heaven. Has the caprice of desire already wandered to a new object? and do younow seek a pretence to refuse, when it is freely offered, what so lately you would have taken by force?'

Hamet, who was now fired with resentment againstAlmeida, whom yet he could not behold without desire; and who, at the same moment, was impatient to revenge his wrongs uponAlmoran; was suddenly prompted to satisfy all his passions, by taking advantage of the wiles ofAlmoran, and the perfidy ofAlmeida, to defeat the one and to punish the other. It was now in his power instantly to consummate his marriage, as a priest might be procured without a moment's delay, and asAlmeida'sconsent was already given; he would then obtain the possession of her person, by the very actin which she perfidiously resigned it to his rival; to whom he would then leave the beauties he had already possessed, and cast from him in disdain, as united with a mind that he could never love. As his imagination was fired with the first conception of this design, he caught her to his breast with a fury, in which all the passions in all their rage were at once concentered: 'Let the priest,' said he, 'instantly unite us. Let us comprize, in one moment, in this instant, NOW, our whole of being, and exclude alike the future and the past!' Then grasping her still in his arms, he looked up to heaven: 'Ye powers,' said he, 'invisible but yet present, who mould my changing and unresisting form; prolong, but for one hour, thatmysterious charm, that is now upon me, and I will be ever after subservient to your will!'

Almeida, who was terrified at the furious ardor of this unintelligible address, shrunk from his embrace, pale and trembling, without power to reply.Hametgazed tenderly upon her; and recollecting the purity and tenderness with which he had loved her, his virtues suddenly recovered their force; he dismissed her from his embrace; and turning from her, he dropped in silence the tear that started to his eye, and expressed, in a low and faultering voice, the thoughts that rushed upon his mind: 'No,' said he;Hametshall still disdain the joy, which is at once sordid and transient:in the breast ofHamet, lust shall not be the pander of revenge. Shall I, who have languished for the pure delight which can arise only from the interchange of soul with soul, and is endeared by mutual confidence and complacency; shall I snatch under this disguise, which belies my features and degrades my virtue, a casual possession of faithless beauty, which I despise and hate? Let this be the portion of those, that hate me without a cause; but let this be far from me!' At this thought, he felt a sudden elation of mind; and the conscious dignity of virtue, that in such a conflict was victorious, rendered him, in this glorious moment, superior to misfortune: his gesture became calm, and his countenance sedate; heconsidered the wrongs he suffered, not as a sufferer, but as a judge; and he determined at once to discover himself toAlmeida, and to reproach her with her crime. He remarked her confusion without pity, as the effect not of grief but of guilt; and fixing his eyes upon her, with the calm severity of a superior and offended being, 'Such,' said he, 'is the benevolence of the Almighty to the children of the dust, that our misfortunes are, like poisons, antidotes to each other.'

Almeida, whose faculties were now suspended by wonder and expectation, looked earnestly at him, but continued silent. 'Thy looks,' saidHamet, are full of wonder; but as yet thy wonder has no cause, in comparisonof that which shall be revealed. Thou knowest the prodigy, which so lately partedHametandAlmeida: I am thatHamet, thou art thatAlmeida.'Almeidawould now have interrupted him; butHametraised his voice, and demanded to be heard: 'At that moment,' said he, 'wretched as I am, the child of error and disobedience, my heart repined in secret at the destiny which had been written upon my head; for I then thought thee faithful and constant: but if our hands had been then united, I should have been more wretched than I am; for I now know that thou art fickle and false. To know thee, though it has pierced my soul with sorrow, has yet healed the wound which was inflicted when I lost thee:and though I am now compelled to wear the form ofAlmoran, whose vices are this moment disgracing mine, yet in the balance I shall be weighed asHamet, and I shall suffer only as I am found wanting.'

Almeida, whose mind was now in a tumult that bordered upon distraction, bewildered in a labyrinth of doubt and wonder, and alike dreading the consequence of what she heard, whether it was false or true, was yet impatient to confute or confirm it; and as soon as she had recovered her speech, urged him for some token of the prodigy he asserted, which he might easily have given, by relating any of the incidents which themselves only could know. But just at this moment,Almoran,having at last disengaged himself from Osmyn, by whom he had been long detained, resumed his own figure: and while the eyes ofAlmeidawere fixed uponHamet, his powers were suddenly taken from him, and restored in an instant; and she beheld the features ofAlmoranvanish, and gazed with astonishment upon his own: 'Thy features change!' said she, 'and thou indeed artHamet.' 'The sudden trance,' said he, 'has restored me to myself; and from my wrongs where shalt thou be hidden?' This reproach was more than she could sustain, but he caught her as she was falling, and supported her in his arms. This incident renewed in a moment all the tenderness of his love: while he beheld her distress, and pressed her bythe embrace that sustained her to his bosom, he forgot every injury which he supposed she had done him; and perceived her recover with a pleasure, that for a moment suspended the sense of his misfortunes.

Her first reflection was upon the snare, in which she had been taken; and her first sensation was joy that she had escaped: she saw at once the whole complication of events that had deceived and distressed her; and nothing more was now necessary, than to explain them toHamet; which, however, she could not do, without discovering the insincerity of her answers to the enquiries which he had made, while she mistook him for his brother: 'If in my heart,' says she, 'thou hastfound any virtue, let it incline thee to pity the vice that is mingled with it: by the vice I have been ensnared, but I have been delivered by the virtue.Almoran, for now I know that it was not thee,Almoran, when he possessed thy form, was with me: he prophaned thy love, by attempts to supplant my virtue; I resisted his importunity, and escaped perdition; but the guilt ofAlmorandrew my resentment uponHamet. I thought the vices which, under thy form, I discovered in his bosom, were thine; and in the anguish of grief, indignation, and disappointment, my heart renounced thee: yet, as I could not give thee up to death, I could not discover toAlmoranthe attempt which I imputedto thee; when you questioned me, therefore, asAlmoran, I was betrayed to dissimulation, by the tenderness which still melted my heart forHamet.' 'I believe thee,' saidHamet, catching her in a transport to his breast: 'I love thee for thy virtue; and may the pure and exalted beings, who are superior to the passions that now throb in my heart, forgive me, if I love thee also for thy fault. Yet, let the danger to which it betrayed thee, teach us still to walk in the strait path, and commit the keeping of our peace to the Almighty; for he that wanders in the maze of falsehood, shall pass by the good that he would meet, and shall meet the evil that he would shun. I also was tempted; but I was strengthenedto resist: if I had used the power, which I derived from the arts that have been practised against me, to return evil for evil; if I had not disdained a secret and unavowed revenge, and the unhallowed pleasures of a brutal appetite; I might have possessed thee in the form ofAlmoran, and have wronged irreparably myself and thee: for how could I have been admitted, asHamet, to the beauties which I had enjoyed asAlmoran? and how couldst thou have given, toAlmoran, what in reality had been appropriated byHamet?'

But whileAlmeidaandHametwere thus congratulating each other upon the evils which they had escaped, they were threatened by others, which, however obvious, they had overlooked.

Almoran, who was now exulting in the prospect of success that had exceeded his hopes, and who supposed the possession ofAlmeidabefore the end of the next hour, was as certain as that the next hour would arrive, suddenly entered the apartment; but upon discoveringHamet, he startedback astonished and disappointed.Hametstood unmoved; and regarded him with a fixed and steady look, that at once reproached and confounded him. 'What treachery,' saidAlmoran, 'has been practised against me? What has brought thee to this place; and how hast thou gained admittance?' 'Against thy peace,' saidHamet, 'no treachery has been practised, but by thyself. By those arts in which thy vices have employed the powers of darkness, I have been brought hither; and by those arts I have gained admittance: thy form which they have imposed upon me, was my passport; and by the restoration of my own, I have detected and disappointed the fraud, which the double change was produced to execute.Almeida, whom, asHamet, thou couldst teach to hate thee, it is now impossible that, asAlmoran, thou shouldst teach to love.'

Almeida, who perceived the storm to be gathering which the next moment would burst upon the head ofHamet, interposed between them, and addressed each of them by turns; urgingHametto be silent, and conjuringAlmoranto be merciful.Almoran, however, without regardingAlmeida, or making any reply toHamet, struck the ground with his foot, and the messengers of death, to whom the signal was familiar, appeared at the door.Almoranthen commanded them to seize his brother, with a countenance pale and livid, and avoice that was broken by rage.Hametwas still unmoved; butAlmeidathrew herself at the feet ofAlmoran, and embracing his knees was about to speak, but he broke from her with sudden fury: 'If the world should sue,' said he, 'I would spurn it off. There is no pang that cunning can invent, which he shall not suffer: and when death at length shall disappoint my vengeance, his mangled limbs shall be cast out unburied, to feed the beasts of the desert and the fowls of heaven.' During this menace,Almeidasunk down without signs of life; andHametstruggling in vain for liberty to raise her from the ground, she was carried off by some women who were called to her assistance.

In this awful crisis,Hamet, who felt his own fortitude give way, looked up, and though he conceived no words, a prayer ascended from his heart to heaven, and was accepted by Him, to whom our thoughts are known while they are yet afar off. ForHamet, the fountain of strength was opened from above; his eye sparkled with confidence, and his breast was dilated by hope. He commanded the guard that were leading him away to stop, and they implicitly obeyed; he then stretched out his hand towardsAlmoran, whose spirit was rebuked before him: 'Hear me,' said he, 'thou tyrant! for it is thy genius that speaks by my voice. What has been the fruit of all thy guilt, but accumulated misery? What joy hast thouderived from undivided empire? what joy from the prohibition of my marriage withAlmeida? what good from that power, which some evil daemon has added to thy own? what, at this moment, is thy portion, but rage and anguish, disappointment, and despair? Even I, whom thou seest the captive of thy power, whom thou hast wronged of empire, and yet more of love; even I am happy, in comparison of thee. I know that my sufferings, however multiplied, are short, for they shall end with life, and no life is long: then shall the everlasting ages commence; and through everlasting ages thy sufferings shall increase. The moment is now near, when thou shalt tread that line which alone is the path toheaven, the narrow path that is stretched over the pit, which smokes for ever, and for ever! When thine aking eye shall look forward to the end that is far distant, and when behind thou shalt find no retreat; when thy steps shall faulter, and thou shalt tremble at the depth beneath, which thought itself is not able to fathom; then shall the angel of distribution lift his inexorable hand against thee: from the irremeable way shall thy feet be smitten; thou shalt plunge in the burning flood; and though thou shalt live for ever, thou shalt rise no more.'

As the words ofHametstruckAlmoranwith terror, and over-awed him by an influence which he could not surmount;Hametwas forced from his presence, before any other orders had been given about him, than were implied in the menace that was addressed toAlmeida: no violence, therefore, was yet offered him; but he was secured, till the king's pleasure should be known, in a dungeon not far from the palace, to which he was conducted by a subterraneous passage; and the door being closed upon him, he was left in silence, darkness, and solitude, such as may be imagined before the voice of the Almighty produced light and life.

WhenAlmoranwas sufficiently recollected to consider his situation, he despaired of prevailing uponAlmeidato gratify his wishes, till her attachment toHametwas irreparably broken;and he, therefore, resolved to put him to death. With this view, he repeated the signal, which convened the ministers of death to his presence; but the sound was lost in a peal of thunder that instantly followed it, and the Genius, from whom he received the talisman, again stood before him.

'Almoran,' said the Genius, 'I am now compelled into thy presence by the command of a superior power; whom, if I should dare to disobey, the energy of his will might drive me, in a moment, beyond the limits of nature and the reach of thought, to spend eternity alone, without comfort, and without hope.' 'And what,' saidAlmoran, 'is the will of this mighty and tremendous being?' 'Hiswill,' said the Genius, 'I will reveal to thee. Hitherto, thou hast been enabled to lift the rod of adversity against thy brother, by powers which nature has not entrusted to man: as these powers, and these only, have put him into thy hand, thou art forbidden to lift it against his life; if thou hadst prevailed against him by thy own power, thy own power would not have been restrained: to afflict him thou art still free; but thou art not permitted to destroy. At the moment, in which thou shalt conceive a thought to cut him off by violence, the punishment of thy disobedience shall commence, and the pangs of death shall be upon thee.' 'If then,' saidAlmoran, 'this awful power is the friend ofHamet; what yetremains, in the stores of thy wisdom, for me? 'Till he dies, I am at once precluded from peace, and safety, and enjoyment.' 'Look up,' said the Genius, 'for the iron hand of despair is not yet upon thee. Thou canst be happy, only by his death; and his life thou art forbidden to take away: yet mayst thou still arm him against himself; and if he dies by his own hand, thy wishes will be full.' 'O name,' saidAlmoran, 'but the means, and it shall this moment be accomplished!' 'Select,' said the Genius, 'some friend—'

At the name of friend,Almoranstarted and looked round in despair. He recollected the perfidy of Osmyn; and he suspected that, from the samecause, all were perfidious: 'WhileHamethas yet life,' said he, 'I fear the face of man, as of a savage that is prowling for his prey.' 'Relinquish not yet thy hopes,' said the Genius; 'for one, in whom thou wilt joyfully confide, may be found. Let him secretly obtain admittance toHamet, as if by stealth; let him profess an abhorrence of thy reign, and compassion for his misfortunes; let him pretend that the rack is even now preparing for him; that death is inevitable, but that torment may be avoided: let him then give him a poignard, as the instrument of deliverance; and, perhaps, his own hand may strike the blow, that shall give thee peace.' 'But who,' saidAlmoran, shall go upon this importanterrand?' 'Who,' replied the Genius, but thyself? Hast thou not the power to assume the form of whomsoever thou wouldst have sent?' 'I would have sent Osmyn,' saidAlmoran, 'but that I know him to be a traitor.' 'Let the form of Osmyn then,' said the Genius, 'be thine. The shadows of the evening have now stretched themselves upon the earth: command Osmyn to attend thee alone in the grove, where Solyman, thy father, was used to meditate by night; and when thy form shall be impressed upon him, I will there seal his eyes in sleep, till the charm shall be broken; so shall no evil be attempted against thee, and the transformation shall be known only to thyself.'

Almoran, whose breast was again illuminated by hope, was about to express his gratitude and joy; but the Genius suddenly disappeared. He began, therefore, immediately to follow the instructions that he had received: he commanded Osmyn to attend him in the grove, and forbad every other to approach; by the power of the talisman he assumed his appearance, and saw him sink down in the supernatural slumber before him: he then quitted the place, and prepared to visitHametin the prison.

The officer who commanded the guard that kept the gate of the prison, was Caled. He was now next in trust and power to Osmyn: but as he had proposed a revolt toHamet, in which Osmyn had refused to concur, he knew that his life was now in his power; he dreaded lest, for some slight offence, or in some fit of causeless displeasure, he should disclose the secret toAlmoran, who would then certainly condemn him to death. To secure this fatal secret, and put an end to his inquietude, he resolved,from the moment thatAlmoranwas established upon the throne, to find some opportunity secretly to destroy Osmyn: in this resolution, he was confirmed by the enmity, which inferior minds never fail to conceive against that merit, which they cannot but envy without spirit to emulate, and by which they feel themselves disgraced without an effort to acquire equal honour; it was confirmed also by the hope which Caled had conceived, that, upon the death of Osmyn, he should succeed to his post: his apprehensions likewise were increased, by the gloom which he remarked in the countenance of Osmyn; and which not knowing that it arose from fear, he imputed to jealousy and malevolence.

WhenAlmoran, who had now assumed the appearance of Osmyn, had passed the subterranean avenue to the dungeon in whichHametwas confined, he was met by Caled; of whom he demanded admittance to the prince, and produced his own signet, as a testimony that he came with the authority of the king. As it was Caled's interest to secure the favour of Osmyn till an opportunity should offer to cut him off, he received him with every possible mark of respect and reverence; and when he was gone into the dungeon, he commanded a beverage to be prepared for him against he should return, in which such spices were infused, as might expel the malignity which, in that place, might be received with the breath of life; and taking himself thekey of the prison, he waited at the door.

WhenAlmoranentered the dungeon, with a lamp which he had received from Caled, he foundHametsitting upon the ground: his countenance was impressed with the characters of grief; but it retained no marks either of anger or fear. When he looked up, and saw the features of Osmyn, he judged that the mutes were behind him; and, therefore, rose up, to prepare himself for death.Almoranbeheld his calmness and fortitude with the involuntary praise of admiration; yet persisted in his purpose without remorse. 'I am come,' said he, by the command ofAlmoran, to denounce that fate, the bitterness ofwhich I will enable thee to avoid.' 'And what is there,' saidHamet, 'in my fortunes, that has prompted thee to the danger of this attempt?' 'The utmost that I can give thee,' saidAlmoran, 'I can give thee without danger to myself: but though I have been placed, by the hand of fortune, near the person of the tyrant, yet has my heart in secret been thy friend. If I am the messenger of evil, impute it to him only by whom it is devised. The rack is now preparing to receive thee; and every art of ingenious cruelty will be exhausted to protract and to increase the agonies of death.' 'And what,' saidHamet, 'can thy friendship offer me?' 'I can offer thee,' saidAlmoran, 'that which will at once dismissthee to those regions, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary rest for ever.' He then produced the poignard from his bosom; and presenting it toHamet, 'Take this,' said he, 'and sleep in peace.'

Hamet, whose heart was touched with sudden joy at the sight of so unexpected a remedy for every evil, did not immediately reflect, that he was not at liberty to apply it: he snatched it in a transport from the hand ofAlmoran, and expressed his sense of the obligation by clasping him in his arms, and shedding the tears of gratitude in his breast. 'Be quick,' saidAlmoran: this moment I must leave thee; and in the next, perhaps, the messengers of destruction may bind thee to therack. 'I will be quick,' saidHamet; 'and the sigh that shall last linger upon my lips, shall bless thee.' They then bid each other farewel:Almoranretired from the dungeon, and the door was again closed uponHamet.

Caled, who waited at the door till the supposed Osmyn should return, presented him with the beverage which he had prepared, of which he recounted the virtues; andAlmoranreceived it with pleasure, and having eagerly drank it off, returned to the palace. As soon as he was alone, he resumed his own figure, and fate, with a confident and impatient expectation, that in a short time a messenger would be dispatched to acquaint him with the deathofHamet.Hamet, in the mean time, having grasped the dagger in his hand, and raised his arm for the blow, 'This,' said he, 'is my passport to the realms of peace, the immediate and only object of my hope!' But at these words, his mind instantly took the alarm: 'Let me reflect,' said he, 'a moment: from what can I derive hope in death?—from that patient and persevering virtue, and from that alone, by which we fulfill the task that is assigned us upon the earth. Is it not our duty, to suffer, as well as to act? If my own hand consigns me to the grave, what can it do but perpetuate that misery, which, by disobedience, I would shun? what can it do, but cut off my life and hope together?' With this reflectionhe threw the dagger from him; and stretching himself again upon the ground, resigned himself to the disposal of the Father of man, most Merciful and Almighty.

Almoran, who had now resolved to send for the intelligence which he longed to hear, was dispatching a messenger to the prison, when he was told that Caled desired admittance to his presence. At the name of Caled, he started up in an extasy of joy; and not doubting but thatHametwas dead, he ordered him to be instantly admitted. When he came in,Almoranmade no enquiry aboutHamet, because he would not appear to expect the event, which yet he supposed he had brought about; he, therefore,asked him only upon what business he came. 'I come, my lord,' said he, 'to apprize thee of the treachery of Osmyn.' 'I know,' saidAlmoran, 'that Osmyn is a traitor; but of what dost thou accuse him? 'As I was but now,' said he, 'changing the guard which is set uponHamet, Osmyn came up to the door of the prison, and producing the royal signet demanded admittance. As the command which I received, when he was delivered to my custody, was absolute, that no foot should enter, I doubted whether the token had not been obtained, by fraud, for some other purpose; yet, as he required admittance only, I complied: but that if any treachery had been contrived, I might detect it; and that no artificemight be practised to favour an escape; I waited myself at the door, and listening to their discourse I overheard the treason that I suspected.' 'What then,' saidAlmoran, 'didst thou hear?' 'A part of what was said,' replied Caled, 'escaped me: but I heard Osmyn, like a perfidious and presumptuous slave, callAlmorana tyrant; I heard him profess an inviolable friendship forHamet, and assure him of deliverance. What were the means, I know not; but he talked of speed, and supposed that the effect was certain.'

Almoran, though he was still impatient to hear ofHamet; and discovered, that if he was dead, his death was unknown to Caled; was yetnotwithstanding rejoiced at what he heard: and as he knew what Caled told him to be true, as the conversation he related had passed between himself andHamet, he exulted in the pleasing confidence that he had yet a friend; the glooms of suspicion, which had involved his mind, were dissipated, and his countenance brightened with complacency and joy. He had delayed to put Osmyn to death, only because he could appoint no man to succeed him, of whom his fears did not render him equally suspicious: but having now found, in Caled, a friend, whose fidelity had been approved when there had been no intention to try it; and being impatient to reward his zeal, and to invest his fidelity with that power, which would render his services mostimportant; he took a ring from his own finger, and putting it upon that of Caled, 'Take this,' said he, 'as a pledge, that to-morrow Osmyn shall lose his head; and that, from this moment, thou art invested with his power.'

Caled having, in the conversation betweenAlmoranandHamet, discerned indubitable treachery, which he imputed to Osmyn whose appearanceAlmoranhad then assumed, eagerly seized the opportunity to destroy him; he, therefore, not trusting to the event of his accusation, had mingled poison in the bowl which he presented toAlmoranwhen he came out fromHamet: this, however, at first he had resolved to conceal.

In consequence of his accusation, he supposed Osmyn would be questioned upon the rack; he supposed also, that the accusation, as it was true, would be confirmed by his confession; that what ever he should then say to the prejudice of his accuser, would be disbelieved; and that when after a few hours the poison should take effect, no inquisition would be made into the death of a criminal, whom the bow-string or the scimitar would otherwise have been employed to destroy. But he now hoped to derive new merit from an act of zeal, whichAlmoranhad approved before it was known, by condemning his rival to die, whose death he had already insured: 'May the wishes of my lord,' said he, 'be always anticipated; and may it befound, that whatever he ordains is already done: may he accept the zeal of his servant, whom he has delighted to honour; for, before the light of the morning shall return, the eyes of Osmyn shall close in everlasting darkness.'

At these words, the countenance ofAlmoranchanged; his cheeks became pale, and his lips trembled: 'What then,' said he, 'hast thou done?' Caled, who was terrified and astonished, threw himself upon the ground, and was unable to reply.Almoran, who now, by the utmost effort of his mind, restrained his confusion and his fear, that he might learn the truth from Caled without dissimulation or disguise, raised him from theground and repeated his enquiry. 'If I have erred,' said Caled, 'impute it not: when I had detected the treachery of Osmyn, I was transported by my zeal for thee. For proof that he is guilty, I appeal now to himself; for he yet lives: but that he might not escape the hand of justice, I mingled, in the bowl I give him, the drugs of death.'

At these words,Almoran, striking his hands together, looked upward in an agony of despair and horror, and fell back upon a sofa that was behind him. Caled, whose astonishment was equal to his disappointment and his fears, approached him with a trembling though hasty pace; but as he stooped to support him,Almoransuddenly drew his dagger and stabbed him to the heart; and repeated the blow with reproaches and execrations, till his strength failed him.

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