ALMORAN AND HAMET

An Oriental Tale in Two Volumes

by

JOHN HAWKESWORTH

MDCCLXI

VOLUME FIRST

TO THE KING

SIR, Amidst the congratulations and praises of a free, a joyful, and nowunited people, people, who are ambitious to express their duty andtheir wishes in their various classes; I think myself happy to have YOURMAJESTY'S most gracious permission to approach You, and, after themanner of the people whose character I have assumed, to bring an humbleoffering in my hand. 

As some part of my subject led me to consider the advantages of ourexcellent constitution in comparison of others; my thoughts werenaturally turned to YOUR MAJESTY, as its warmest friend and mostpowerful protector: and as the whole is intended, to recommend thepractice of virtue, as the means of happiness; to whom could I addressit with so much propriety, as to a PRINCE, who illustrates and enforcesthe precepts of the moralist by his life. 

I am, May it please Your MAJESTY, Your MAJESTY'S Most faithful, most obliged, And most obedient Subject and Servant, John Hawkesworth. 

CHAP. I. 

Who is he among the children of the earth, that repines at the power ofthe wicked? and who is he, that would change the lot of the righteous?He, who has appointed to each his portion, is God; the Omniscient andthe Almighty, who fills eternity, and whose existence is from Himself!but he who murmurs, is man; who yesterday was not, and who to-morrowshall be forgotten: let him listen in silence to the voice of knowlege, and hide the blushes of confusion in the dust. 

Solyman, the mighty and the wife, who, in the one hundred and secondyear of the Hegyra, sat upon the throne of Persia, had two sons, ALMORANand HAMET, and they were twins. ALMORAN was the first born, but Solymandivided his affection equally between them: they were both lodged in thesame part of the seraglio, both were attended by the same servants, andboth received instructions from the same teacher. 

One of the first things that ALMORAN learnt, was the prerogative of hisbirth; and he was taught very early to set a high value upon it, by theterms in which those about him expressed their sense of the power, thesplendor, and the delights of royalty. As his mind gradually opened, henaturally considered these as the objects of universal define, and themeans of supreme felicity: he was often reminded, that the time wascoming, when the sole possession of sovereign power would enable him tofulfil all his wishes, to determine the fate of dependent nations with anod, and dispense life and death, and happiness and misery, at his will:he was flattered by those who hoped to draw wealth and dignity from hisfavour; and interest prompted all who approached him, to administer tohis pleasures with a zeal and assiduity, which had the appearance ofreverence to his merit, and affection to his person. 

HAMET, on the contrary, soon became sensible of a subordinate station:he was not, indeed, neglected; but he was not much caressed. When thegratification of HAMET came in competition with that of ALMORAN, he wasalways obliged to give it up, except when Solyman interposed: his mindwas, therefore, naturally led to seek for happiness in objects verydifferent from those which had fixed the attention of ALMORAN. As heknew not to how narrow a sphere caprice or jealousy might confine him, he considered what pleasures were least dependent upon externaladvantages; and as the first popular commotion which mould happen afterhis brother's accession to the throne, might probably cost him his life, he was very inquisitive about the state into which his spirit would bedismissed by the Angel of Death, and very diligent to do whatever mightsecure him a share of the permanent and unchangeable felicity ofParadise. 

This difference in the situation of ALMORAN and HAMET, produced greatdissimilarity in their dispositions, habits, and characters; to which, perhaps, nature might also in some degree contribute. ALMORAN washaughty, vain, and voluptuous; HAMET was gentle, courteous, andtemperate: ALMORAN was volatile, impetuous, and irascible; HAMET wasthoughtful, patient, and forbearing. Upon the heart of HAMET also werewritten the instructions of the Prophet; to his mind futurity waspresent by habitual anticipation; his pleasure, his pain, his hopes, andhis fears, were perpetually referred to the Invisible and AlmightyFather of Life, by sentiments of gratitude or resignation, complacencyor confidence; so that his devotion was not periodical but constant. 

But the views of ALMORAN were terminated by nearer objects: his mind wasperpetually busied in the anticipation of pleasures and honours, whichhe supposed to be neither uncertain nor remote; these excited hishopes, with a power sufficient to fix his attention; he did not lookbeyond them for other objects, nor enquire how enjoyments more distantwere to be acquired; and as he supposed these to be already secured tohim by his birth, there was nothing he was solicitous to obtain as thereward of merit, nor any thing that he considered himself to possess asthe bounty of Heaven. If the sublime and disinterested rectitude thatproduces and rewards itself, dwells indeed with man, it dwelt not withALMORAN: with respect to God, therefore, he was not impressed with asense either of duty or dependence; he felt neither reverence nor love, gratitude nor resignation: in abstaining from evil, he was notintentionally good; he practised the externals of morality withoutvirtue, and performed the rituals of devotion without piety. 

Such were ALMORAN and HAMET, when Solyman their father, full of days andfull of honour, slept in peace the sleep of death. With this event theywere immediately acquainted. The emotions of ALMORAN were such as it wasimpossible to conceal: the joy that he felt in secret was so great, thatthe mere dread of disappointment for a moment suspended his belief ofwhat he heard: when his fears and his doubts gave way, his cheeks weresuffused with sudden blushes, and his eyes sparkled with exultation andimpatience: he looked eagerly about him, as if in haste to act; yet hislooks were embarrassed, and his gestures irresolute, because he knewnot what to do: he uttered some incoherent sentences, which discoveredat once the joy that he felt, and his sense of its impropriety; and hiswhole deportment expressed the utmost tumult and perturbation of mind. 

Upon HAMET, the death of his father produced a very different effect: assoon as he heard it, his lips trembled and his countenance grew pale; heflood motionless a moment, like a pilgrim transfixed by lightning in thedesert; he then smote his breast, and looking upward, his eyes bydegrees overflowed with tears, and they fell, like dew distilling fromthe mountain, in a calm and silent shower. As his grief was thus mingledwith devotion, his mind in a short time recovered its tranquillity, though not its chearfulness, and he desired to be conducted to hisbrother. 

He found him surrounded by the lords of his court, his eye stillrestless and ardent, and his deportment elate and assuming. HAMETpressed hastily through the circle, and prostrated himself before him:ALMORAN received the homage with a tumultuous pleasure; but at lengthraised him from the ground, and assured him of his protection, thoughwithout any expressions either of kindness or of sorrow: 'HAMET, ' sayshe, 'if I have no cause to complain of you as a subject, you shall haveno cause to complain of me as a king. ' HAMET, whose heart was againpierced by the cold and distant behaviour of his brother, suppressed thesigh that struggled in his bosom, and secretly wiped away the tear thatstarted to his eye: he retired, with his looks fixed upon the ground, toa remote corner of the apartment; and though his heart yearned toembrace his brother, his modest diffidence restrained him from intrudingupon the king. 

In this situation were ALMORAN and HAMET, when OMAR entered theapartment. OMAR, upon whose head the hand of time became heavy, had fromhis youth acquainted himself with wisdom: to him nature had revealedherself in the silence of the night, when his lamp was burning alone, and his eyes only were open: to him was known the power of the Seal ofSolomon; and to him the knowlege of things invisible had been revealed. Nor was the virtue of OMAR inferior to his knowlege; his heart was afountain of good, which though it flowed through innumerable streams wasnever dry: yet was the virtue of OMAR cloathed with humility; and he wasstill pressing nearer to perfection, by a devotion which though elevatedwas rational, and though regular was warm. From the council of OMAR, Solyman had derived glory and strength; and to him he had committed theeducation of his children. 

When he entered the apartment, the croud, touched at once with reverenceand love, drew back; every eye was cast downward, and every tongue wassilent. The full of days approached the king, and kneeling before him heput into his hand a sealed paper: the king received it with impatience, seeing it superscribed with the hand of his father; and OMAR lookinground, and perceiving HAMET, beckoned him to come forward. HAMET, whoseobedience to OMAR had been so long habitual that it was now almostspontaneous, instantly drew near, though with a flow and irresolutepace; and ALMORAN, having broken the seal of the paper, began to read itto himself, with a look that expressed the utmost anxiety andimpatience. OMAR kept his eye fixed upon him, and soon perceived thathis countenance was disfigured by confusion and trouble, and that heseemed preparing to put up the paper in his bosom: he then producedanother paper from under his robe, and gave it to HAMET: 'This, ' sayshe, is a copy of the will of Solyman, your father; the original is inthe hand of ALMORAN: read it, and you will find that he has bequeathedhis kingdom between you. '

The eyes of all present were now turned upon HAMET, who stood silent andmotionless with amazement, but was soon roused to attention by thehomage that was paid him. In the mean time, ALMORAN'S confusionincreased every moment: his disappointment was aggravated by the suddenattention of those who were present to his brother; and his jealousymade him think himself neglected, while those acts of duty wereperformed to HAMET, which were now known to be his right, and which hehad himself received before him. 

HAMET, however, regarded but little what so much excited the envy ofALMORAN; his mind was employed upon superior objects, and agitated bynobler passions: the coldness of his brother's behaviour, though it hadgrieved had not quenched his affection; and as he was now no longerrestrained by the deference due from a subject to his king, he ran tohim, and catching him to his breast attempted to speak; but his heartwas too full, and he could express his affection and joy only by histears. ALMORAN rather suffered than received the embrace; and after afew ceremonies, to which neither of them could much attend, they retiredto separate apartments. 

CHAP. II. 

When ALMORAN was alone, he immediately locked the door; and throwinghimself upon a sofa in an agony of vexation and disapointment, of whichhe was unwilling there should be any witness, he revolved in his mindall the pleasures and honours of supreme dominion which had now suddenlybeen snatched from him, with a degree of anguish and regret, notproportioned to their real, but their imaginary value. Of future good, that which we obtain is found to be less than our expectations; but thatof which we are disappointed, we suppose would have been more: thus dothe children of hope extract evil, both from what they gain, and fromwhat they lose. But ALMORAN, after the first tumult of his mind hadsubsided, began to consider as well what was left him, as what had beentaken away. He was still without a superior, though he had an equal; hewas still a king, though he did not govern alone: and with respect toevery individual in his dominions, except one, his will would now be alaw; though with respect to the public, the concurrence of his brotherwould be necessary to give it force. 'Let me then, ' says he, 'make themost of the power that is now put into my hand, and wait till somefavourable opportunity shall offer to increase it. Let me dissemble myjealousy and disappointment, that I may not alarm suspicion, or put thevirtues of HAMET upon their guard against me; and let me contrive togive our joint administration such a form, as may best favour mydesign. '

Such were the reflections, with which ALMORAN soothed the anguish of hismind; while HAMET was busied in speculations of a very different kind. If he was pleased at reflecting, that he was raised from a subject to aprince; he was pleased still more, when he considered his elevation as atest of his father's affection to his person, and approbation of hisconduct: he was also delighted with the thought, that his brother wasassociated with him in the arduous talk which he was now called toperform. 'If I had been appointed to govern alone, ' said he, 'I shouldhave had no equal; and he who has no equal, though he may have faithfulservants, can have no friend: there cannot be that union of interests, that equal participation of good, that unrestrained intercourse of mind, and that mutual dependence, which constitutes the pure and exaltedhappiness of friendship. With ALMORAN, I shall share the supreme delightof wresting the innocent and the helpless from the iron hand ofoppression; of animating merit by reward, and restraining the unworthyby fear: I shall share, with ALMORAN, the pleasures of governing anumerous, a powerful, and a happy people; pleasures which, howevergreat, are, like all others, increased by participation. '

While HAMET was thus enjoying the happiness, which his virtue derivedfrom the same source, from which the vices of ALMORAN had filled hisbreast with anguish and discontent; OMAR was contriving in what mannertheir joint government could best be carried into execution. 

He knew that Solyman, having considered the dispositions of his sons, was of opinion, that if they had been blended in one person, they wouldhave produced a character more fit to govern in his stead, than eitherof them alone: ALMORAN, he thought, was too volatile and warm; but hesuspected, that HAMET would sink into inactivity for want of spirit: hefeared alike ALMORAN'S love of enterprize, and HAMET'S fondness forretirement: he observed, in HAMET, a placid easiness of temper, whichmight suffer the reins of government to lie too loose; and, in ALMORAN, a quickness of resentment, and jealousy of command, which might holdthem too tight: he hoped, therefore, that by leaving them a jointdominion, he should blend their dispositions, at least in their effects, in every act of government that should take place; or that, however theyshould agree to administer their government, the public would derivebenefit from the virtues of both, without danger of suffering from theirimperfections, as their imperfections would only operate against eachother, while, in whatever was right, their minds would naturally concur, as the coincidence of rectitude with rectitude is necessary and eternal. But he did not consider, that different dispositions operatingseparately upon two different wills, would appear in effects very unlikethose, which they would concur to produce in one: that two wills, underthe direction of dispositions so different, would seldom be brought tocoincide; and that more mischiefs would probably arise from the contest, than from the imperfections of either alone. 

But Solyman had so long applauded himself for his project before herevealed it to OMAR, that OMAR found him too much displeased with anyobjection, to consider its weight: and knowing that peculiar notions aremore rarely given up, than opinions received from others, and made ourown only by adoption, he at length acquiesced, lest he should by fartheropposition lose his influence, which on other occasions he might stillemploy to the advantage of the public; and took a solemn oath, that hewould, as far as was in his power, see the will carried into execution. 

To this, indeed, he consented without much reluctance, as he had littleless reason to fear the sole government of ALMORAN, than a jointadministration; and if a struggle for superiority should happen, hehoped the virtues HAMET would obtain the suffrages of the people in hisfavour, and establish him upon the throne alone. But as change is itselfan evil, and as changes in government are seldom produced without greatconfusion and calamity, he applied himself to consider in what mannerthe government of ALMORAN and HAMET could be administered, so as mosteffectually to blend their characters in their administration, andprevent the conduct of one from exciting jealousy in the other. 

After much thought, he determined that a system of laws should beprepared, which the sons of Solyman should examine and alter till theyperfectly approved, and to which they should then give the sanction oftheir joint authority: that when any addition or alteration should bethought necessary, it should be made in the same manner; and that whenany insuperable difference of sentiment happened, either in this or inany act of prerogative independent of the laws for regulating themanners of the people, the kings should refer it to some person ofapproved integrity and wisdom, and abide by his determination. OMAReasily foresaw, that when the opinion of ALMORAN and HAMET shoulddiffer, the opinion of ALMORAN would be established; for there were manycauses that would render ALMORAN inflexible, and HAMET yielding: ALMORANwas naturally confident and assuming, HAMET diffident and modest;ALMORAN was impatient of contradiction, HAMET was attentive toargument, and felicitous only for the discovery of truth. ALMORAN alsoconceived, that by the will of his father, he had suffered wrong; HAMET, that he had received a favour: ALMORAN, therefore, was disposed toresent the first appearance of opposition; and HAMET, on the contrary, to acquiesce, as in his share of government, whatever it might be, hehad more than was his right by birth, and his brother had less. Thus, therefore, the will of ALMORAN would probably predominate in the state:but as the same cause which conferred this superiority, would oftenprevent contention, OMAR considered it, upon the whole, rather as goodthan evil. 

When he had prepared his plan, therefore, he sent a copy of it, bydifferent messengers at the same time, both to ALMORAN and HAMET, inclosed in a letter, in which he exprest his sense of obligation totheir father, and his zeal and affection for them: he mentioned thepromise he had made, to devote himself to their service; and the oath hehad taken, to propose whatever he thought might facilitate theaccomplishment of their father's design, with honour to them andhappiness to their people: these motives, which he could not resistwithout impiety, he hoped would absolve him from presumption; andtrusting in the rectitude of his intentions, he left the issue to God. 

CHAP. III. 

The receipt of this letter threw ALMORAN into another agony ofindignation: he felt again the loss of his prerogative; the offer ofadvice he disdained as an insult, to which he had been injuriouslysubjected by the will of his father; and he was disposed to rejectwhatever was suggested by OMAR, even before his proposal was known. Withthis temper of mind he began to read, and at every paragraph took newoffence; he determined, however, not to admit OMAR to the honour of aconference upon the subject, but to settle a plan of government with hisbrother, without the least regard to his advice. 

A supercilious attention to minute formalities, is a certain indicationof a little mind, conscious to the want of innate dignity, andfelicitous to derive from others what it cannot supply to itself: as thescrupulous exaction of every trifling tribute discovers the weakness ofthe tyrant, who fears his claim should be disputed; while the prince, who is conscious of superior and indisputable power, and knows that thestates he has subjugated do not dare to revolt, scarce enquires whethersuch testimonies of allegiance are given or not. 

Thus, the jealousy of ALMORAN already enslaved him to the punctilios ofstate; and the most trifling circumstances involved him in perplexity, or fired him with resentment: the friendship and fidelity of OMAR stunghim with rage, as insolent and intrusive; and though it determined himto an immediate interview with his brother, yet he was embarrassed howto procure it. At first he rose, and was about to go to him; but hestopped short with disdain, upon reflecting, that it was an act ofcondescension which might be deemed an acknowledgement of superiority:he then thought of sending for HAMET to come to him; but this he fearedmight provoke him, as implying a denial of his equality: at length hedetermined to propose a meeting in the chamber of council, and was justdispatching an officer with the message, when HAMET entered theapartment. 

The countenance of HAMET was flushed with joy, and his heart was warmedwith the pleasing sensations of affection and confidence, by the sameletter, from which ALMORAN had extracted the bitterness of jealousy andresentment, and as he had no idea that an act of courtesy to his brothercould derogate from his own dignity or importance, he indulged thehonest impatience of his heart to communicate the pleasure with which itoverflowed: he was, indeed, somewhat disappointed, to find no traces ofsatisfaction in the countenance of ALMORAN, when he saw the same paperin his hand, which had impressed so much upon his own. 

He waited some time after the first salutations, without mentioning thescheme of government he was come to concert; because having observedthat ALMORAN was embarrassed and displeased, he expected that he wouldcommunicate the cause, and pleased himself with the hope that he mightremove it: finding, however, that this expectation was disappointed, headdressed him to this effect:

'How happy are we, my dear brother, in the wisdom and fidelity, of OMAR!how excellent is the system of government that he has proposed! how easyand honourable will it be to us that govern, and how advantageous to thepeople that obey!'

'The advantages, ' said ALMORAN, 'which you seem to have discovered, arenot evident to me: tell me, then, what you imagine they are, and I willafterwards give you my opinion. '

'By establishing a system of laws as the rule of government, ' saidHAMET, 'many evils will be avoided, and many benefits procured. If thelaw is the will only of the sovereign, it can never certainly be knownto the people: many, therefore, may violate that rule of right, whichthe hand of the Almighty has written upon the living tablets of theheart, in the presumptuous hope, that it will not subject them topunishment; and those, by whom that rule is fulfilled, will not enjoythat consciousness of security, which they would derive from theprotection of a prescribed law, which they have never broken. Neitherwill those who are inclined to do evil, be equally restrained by thefear of punishment; if neither the offence is ascertained, nor thepunishment prescribed. One motive to probity, therefore, will bewanting; which ought to be supplied, as well for the sake of those whomay be tempted to offend, as of those who may suffer by the offence. Besides, he who governs not by a written and a public law, must eitheradminister that government in person, or by others: if in person, hewill sink under a labour which no man is able to sustain; and if byothers, the inferiority of their rank must subject them to temptationswhich it cannot be hoped they will always resist, and to prejudiceswhich it will perhaps be impossible for them to surmount. But toadminister government by a law which ascertains the offence, and directsthe punishment, integrity alone will be sufficient; and as theperversion of justice will in this case be notorious, and depend notupon opinion but fact, it will seldom be practised, because it will beeasily punished. '

ALMORAN, who had heard the opinions of HAMET with impatience and scorn, now started from his feat with a proud and contemptuous aspect: he firstglanced his eyes upon his brother; and then looking disdainfullydownward, he threw back his robe, and stretching out his hand from him, 'Shall the son of Solyman, ' said he, 'upon whose will the fate ofnations was suspended, whose smiles and frowns were alone the criterionsof right and wrong, before whom the voice of wisdom itself was silent, and the pride even of virtue humbled in the dust; shall the son ofSolyman be harnessed, like a mule, in the trammels of law? shall hebecome a mere instrument to execute what others have devised? shall heonly declare the determinations of a statute, and shall his ear beaffronted by claims of right? It is the glory of a prince, to punish forwhat and whom he will; to be the sovereign, not only of property, butof life; and to govern alike without prescription or appeal. '

HAMET, who was struck with astonishment at this declaration, and thevehemence with which it was uttered, after a short recollection madethis reply: 'It is the glory of a prince, to govern others, as he isgoverned by Him, who is alone most merciful and almighty! It is hisglory to prevent crimes, rather than to display his power in punishment;to diffuse happiness, rather than inforce subjection; and rather toanimate with love, than depress by fear. Has not He that shall judge us, given us a rule of life by which we shall be judged? is not our rewardand punishment already set before us? are not His promises andthreatenings, motives to obedience? and have we not confidence and joy, when we have obeyed? To God, His own divine perfections are a law; andthese He has transcribed as a law to us. Let us, then, govern, as we aregoverned; let us seek our happiness in the happiness that we bestow, andour honour in emulating the benevolence of Heaven. '

As ALMORAN feared, that to proceed farther in this argument would toofar disclose his sentiments, and put HAMET too much upon his guard; hedetermined for the present to dissemble: and as he perceived, thatHAMET'S opinion, and an administration founded upon it, would render himextreamly popular, and at length possibly establish him alone; he wasnow felicitous only to withdraw him from public notice, and persuade himto leave the government, whatever form it should receive, to beadministered by others: returning, therefore, to his seat, and assumingan appearance of complacence and tranquillity, with which he could notform his language perfectly to agree; 'Let us then, ' said he, 'if a lawmust be set up in our stead, leave the law to be executed by our slaves:and as nothing will be left for us to do, that is worthy of us, let usdevote ourselves to the pleasures of ease; and if there are anyenjoyments peculiar to royalty, let us secure them as our onlydistinction from the multitude. '

'Not so, ' says HAMET; 'for there is yet much for a prince to do, afterthe best system of laws has been established: the government of a nationas a whole, the regulation and extent of its trade, the establishment ofmanufactories, the encouragement of genius, the application of therevenues, and whatever can improve the arts of peace, and securesuperiority in war, is the proper object of a king's attention. 

'But in these, ' said ALMORAN, 'it will be difficult for two minds toconcur; let us, then, agree to leave these also to the care of someother, whom we can continue as long as we approve, and displace when weapprove no longer: we shall, by this expedient, be able to avert theodium of any unpopular measure; and by the sacrifice of a slave, we canalways satisfy the people, and silence public discontent. '

'To trust implicitly to another, ' says HAMET, 'is to give up aprerogative, which is at once our highest duty and interest to keep; itis to betray our trust, and to sacrifice our honour to another. Theprince, who leaves the government of his people implicitly to a subject, leaves it to one, who has many more temptations to betray their interestthan himself: a vicegerent is in a subordinate station; he has, therefore, much to rear, and much to hope: he may also acquire the powerof obtaining what he hopes, and averting what he rears, at the publicexpence; he may stand in need of dependents, and may be able nootherwise to procure them, than by conniving at the fraud or theviolence which they commit: he may receive, in bribes, an equivalent forhis share, as an individual, in the public prosperity; for his interestis not essentially connected with that of the state; he has a separateinterest; but the interest of the state, and of the king, are one: hemay even be corrupted to betray the councils, and give up the interestsof the nation, to a foreign power; but this is impossible to the king;for nothing equivalent to what he would give up, could be offered him. But as a king has not equal temptations to do wrong, neither is heequally exposed to opposition, when he does right: the measures of asubstitute are frequently opposed, merely from interest; because theleader of a faction against him, hopes, that if he can remove him bypopular clamour, he shall succeed to his power; but it can be no man'sinterest to oppose the measures of a king, if his measures are good, because no man can hope to supplant him. Are not these the precepts ofthe Prophet, whose wisdom was from above?'--"Let not the eye ofexpectation be raised to another, for that which thyself only shouldbestow: suffer not thy own shadow to obscure thee; nor be content toderive that glory, which it is thy prerogative to impart. "

'But is the prince, ' said ALMORAN, always the wisest man in hisdominions? Can we not find, in another, abilities and experience, whichwe do not possess? and is it not the duty of him who presides in theship, to, place the helm in that hand which can best steer it?'

'A prince, ' said HAMET, 'who sincerely intends the good of his people, can scarce fail to effect it; all the wisdom of the nation will be atonce turned to that object: whatever is his principal aim, will be thatof all who are admitted to his council; for to concur with hisprincipal aim, must be the surest recommendation to his favour. Let us, then, hear others; but let us act ourselves. '

As ALMORAN now perceived, that the longer this conversation continued, the more he should be embarrassed; he put an end to it, by appearing toacquiesce in what HAMET had proposed. HAMET withdrew, charmed with thecandour and flexibility which he imagined he had discovered in hisbrother; and not without some exultation in his own rhetoric, which, hesupposed had gained no inconsiderable victory. ALMORAN, in the meantime, applauded himself for having thus far practised the arts ofdissimulation with success; fortified himself in the resolutions he hadbefore taken; and conceived new malevolence and jealousy against HAMET. 

CHAP. IV. 

While HAMET was exulting in his conquest, and his heart was overflowingat once with self-complacency, and affection to his brother; he wastold, that OMAR was waiting without, and desired admittance. HAMETordered that he should be immediately introduced; and when OMAR entered, and would have prostrated himself before him, he catched him in his armsin a transport of affection and esteem; and having ordered that noneshould interrupt them, compelled him to sit down on a sofa. 

He then related, with all the joy of a youthful and an ardent mind, theconversation he had had with ALMORAN, intermixed with expressions ofthe highest praise and the most cordial esteem. OMAR was not withoutsuspicion, that the sentiments which ALMORAN had first expressed withsuch vehemence of passion, were still predominant in his mind: but ofthese suspicions he did not give the least hint to HAMET; not onlybecause to communicate suspicions is to accuse without proof, butbecause he did not think himself at liberty to make an ill report ofanother, though he knew it to be true. He approved the sentiments ofHAMET, as they had indeed been infused by his own instructions; and someprecepts and cautions were now added, which the accession of HAMET to ashare of the imperial power made particularly necessary. 

'Remember, ' said OMAR, 'that the most effectual way of promoting virtue, is to prevent occasions of vice. There are, perhaps, particularsituations, in which human virtue has always failed: at least, temptation often repeated, and long continued, has seldom been finallyresisted. In a government so constituted as to leave the people exposedto perpetual seduction, by opportunities of dissolute pleasure oriniquitous gain, the multiplication of penal laws will only tend todepopulate the kingdom, and disgrace the state; to devote to thescymitar and the bow-string, those who might have been useful tosociety, and to leave the rest dissolute turbulent and factious. If thestreets not only abound with women, who inflame the passenger by theirappearance, their gesture, and their solicitations; but with houses, inwhich every desire which they kindle may be gratified with secrecy andconvenience; it is in vain that "the feet of the prostitute go down todeath, and that her steps take hold on hell:" what then can be hopedfrom any punishment, which the laws of man can superadd to disease andwant, to rottenness and perdition? If you permit opium to be publicklysold at a low rate; it will be folly to hope, that the dread ofpunishment will render idleness and drunkenness strangers to the poor. If a tax is so collected, as to leave opportunities to procure thecommodity, without paying it; the hope of gain will always surmount thefear of punishment. If, when the veteran has served you at the risque oflife, you withold his hire; it will be in vain to threaten usury andextortion with imprisonment and fines. If, in your armies, you suffer itto be any man's interest, rather to preserve the life of a horse than aman; be assured, that your own sword is drawn for your enemy: for therewill always be some, in whom interest is stronger than humanity andhonour. Put no man's interest, therefore, in the ballance against hisduty; nor hope that good can often be produced, but by preventingopportunities of evil. '

To these precepts of OMAR, HAMET listened as to the instructions of afather; and having promised to keep them as the treasure of life, hedismissed him from his presence. The heart of HAMET was now expandedwith the most pleasing expectations; but ALMORAN was pining withsolicitude, jealousy, and distrust: he took every opportunity to avoidboth OMAR and HAMET; but HAMET still retained his confidence, and OMARhis suspicions. 

CHAP. V. 

In the mean time, the system of government was established which hadbeen proposed by OMAR, and in which HAMET concurred from principle, andALMORAN from policy. The views of ALMORAN terminated in thegratification of his own appetites and passions; those of HAMET, in thedischarge of his duty: HAMET, therefore, was indefatigable in thebusiness of the state; and as his sense of honour, and his love of thepublic, made this the employment of his choice, it was to him theperpetual source of a generous and sublime felicity. ALMORAN also wasequally diligent, but from another motive: he was actuated, not by loveof the public, but by jealousy of his brother; he performed his task asthe drudge of necessity, with reluctance and ill will; so that to him itproduced pain and anxiety, weariness and impatience. 

To atone for this waste of time, he determined to crowd all thatremained with delight: his gardens were an epitome of all nature, and onhis palace were exhausted all the treasures of art; his seraglio wasfilled with beauties of every nation, and his table supplied withdainties from the remotest corners of his dominions. In the songs thatwere repeated in his presence, he listened at once to the voice ofadulation and music; he breathed the perfumes of Arabia, and he tastedthe forbidden pleasure of wine. But as every appetite is soon satiatedby excess, his eagerness to accumulate pleasure deprived him ofenjoyment. Among the variety of beauty that surrounded him, the passion, which, to be luxurious, must be delicate and refined, was degraded to amere instinct, and exhausted in endless dissipation; the caress wasunendeared by a consciousness of reciprocal delight, and was immediatelysucceeded by indifference or disgust. By the dainties that perpetuallyurged him to intemperance, that appetite, which alone could make evendainties tasteful, was destroyed. The splendor of his palace and thebeauty of his gardens, became at length so familiar to his eye, thatthey were frequently before him, without being seen. Even flattery andmusic lost their power, by too frequent a repetition: and the brokenslumbers of the night, and the languor of the morning, were more thanequivalent to the transient hilarity that was inspired by wine. Thuspassed the time of ALMORAN, divided between painful labours which he didnot dare to shun, and the search of pleasure which he could never find. 

HAMET, on the contrary, did not seek pleasure, but pleasure seemed toseek him: he had a perpetual complacence and serenity of mind, whichrendered him constantly susceptible of pleasing impressions; every thingthat was prepared to refresh or entertain him in his seasons ofretirement and relaxation, added something to the delight which wascontinually springing in his breast, when he reviewed the past, orlooked forward to the future. Thus, the pleasures of sense wereheightened by those of his mind, and the pleasures of the mind by thoseof sense: he had, indeed, as yet no wise; for as yet no woman had fixedhis attention, or determined his choice. 

Among the ambassadors whom the monarchs of Asia sent to congratulate thesons of Solyman upon their accession to the throne, there was a nativeof Circassia, whose name was Abdallah. Abdallah had only one child, adaughter, in whom all his happiness and affection centered; he wasunwilling to leave her behind, and therefore brought her to the court ofPersia. Her mother died while she was yet an infant; she was now in thesixteenth year of her age, and her name was ALMEIDA. She was beautifulas the daughters of Paradise, and gentle as the breezes of the spring;her mind was without stain, and her manners were without art. 

She was lodged with her father in a palace that joined to the gardens ofthe seraglio; and it happened that a lamp which had one night been leftburning in a lower apartment, by some accident set fire to the net-workof cotton that surrounded a sopha, and the whole room was soon after ina flame. ALMORAN, who had been passing the afternoon in riot anddebauchery, had been removed from his banquetting room asleep; but HAMETwas still in his closet, where he had been regulating some papers thatwere to be used the next day. The windows of this room opened towardsthe inner apartments of the house in which Abdallah resided; and HAMET, having by accident looked that way, was alarmed by the appearance of anunusual light, and starting up to see whence it proceeded, he discoveredwhat had happened. 

Having hastily ordered the guard of the night to assist in quenching theflame, and removing the furniture, he ran himself into the garden. Assoon as he was come up to the house, he was alarmed by the shrieks of afemale voice; and the next moment, ALMEIDA appeared at the window of anapartment directly over that which was on fire. ALMEIDA he had till nownever seen, nor did he so much as know that Abdallah had a daughter: butthough her person was unknown, he was strongly interested in her danger, and called out to her to throw herself into his arms. At the sound ofhis voice she ran back into the room, such is the force of inviolatemodesty, though the smoke was then rising in curling spires from thewindows: she was, however, soon driven back; and part of the floor atthe same instant giving way, she wrapt her veil round her, and leapedinto the garden. HAMET caught her in his arms; but though he broke herfall, he sunk down with her weight: he did not, however, quit hischarge, but perceiving she had fainted, he made haste with her into hisapartment, to afford her such assistance as he could procure. 

She was covered only with the light and loose robe in which she slept, and her veil had dropped off by the way. The moment he entered hiscloset, the light discovered to him such beauty as before he had neverseen: she now began to revive; and before her senses returned, shepressed the prince with an involuntary embrace, which he returned bystraining her closer to his breast, in a tumult of delight, confusion, and anxiety, which he could scarce sustain. As he still held her in hisarms, and gazed silently upon her, she opened her eyes, and instantlyrelinquishing her hold, shrieked out, and threw herself from him. Asthere were no women nearer than that wing of the palace in which hisbrother resided, and as he had many reasons not to leave her in theircharge; he was in the utmost perplexity what to do. He assured her, insome hasty and incoherent words, of her security; he told her, that shewas in the royal palace, and that he who had conveyed her thither wasHAMET. The habitual reverence of sovereign power, now surmounted allother passions in the bosom of ALMEIDA: she was instantly covered withnew confusion; and hiding her face with her hands, threw herself at hisfeet: he raised her with a trepidation almost equal to her own, andendeavoured to sooth her into confidence and tranquillity. 

Hitherto her memory had been wholly suspended by violent passions, whichhad crowded upon her in a rapid and uninterrupted succession, and thefirst gleam of recollection threw her into a new agony; and having beensilent a few moments, she suddenly smote her hands together, andbursting into tears, cried out, 'Abdallah! my father! my father!'--HAMETnot only knew but felt all the meaning of the exclamation, andimmediately ran again into the garden: he had advanced but a few paces, before he discerned an old man sitting upon the ground, and lookingupward in silent anguish, as if he had exhausted the power of complaint. HAMET, upon a nearer approach, perceived by the light of the flame thatit was Abdallah; and instantly calling him by his name, told him, thathis daughter was safe. At the name of his daughter, Abdallah suddenlystarted up, as if he had been roused by the voice of an angel from thesleep of death: HAMET again repeated, that his daughter was in safety;and Abdallah looking wistfully at him, knew him to be the king. He wasthen struck with an awe that restrained him from enquiry: but HAMETdirecting him where he might find her, went forward, that he might notlessen the pleasure of their interview, nor restrain the firsttransports of duty and affection by his presence. He soon met with otherfugitives from the fire, which had opened a communication between thegardens and the street; and among them some women belonging to ALMEIDA, whom, he conducted himself to their mistress. He immediately allotted toher and to her father, an apartment in his division of the palace; andthe fire being now nearly extinguished, he retired to rest. 

CHAP. VI. 

Though the night was far advanced, yet the eyes of HAMET were strangersto sleep: his fancy incessantly repeated the events that had justhappened; the image of ALMEIDA was ever before him; and his breastthrobbed with a disquietude, which, though it prevented rest, he did notwish to lose. 

ALMORAN, in the mean time, was slumbering away the effects of hisintemperance; and in the morning, when he was told what had happened, heexpressed no passion but curiosity: he went hastily into the garden;but when he had gazed upon the ruins, and enquired how the fire began, and what it had consumed, he thought of it no more. 

But HAMET suffered nothing that regarded himself, to exclude others fromhis attention: he went again to the ruins, not to gratify his curiosity, but to see what might yet be done to alleviate the misery of thesufferers, and secure for their use what had been preserved from theflames. He found that no life had been lost, but that many persons hadbeen hurt; to these he sent the physicians of his own houshold: andhaving rewarded those who had assisted them in their distress, notforgetting even the soldiers who had only fulfilled his own orders, hereturned, and applied himself to dispatch the public business in thechamber of council, with the same patient and diligent attention as ifnothing had happened. He had, indeed, ordered enquiry to be made afterALMEIDA; and when he returned to his apartment, he found Abdallahwaiting to express his gratitude for the obligations he had received. 

HAMET accepted his acknowledgements with a peculiar pleasure, for theyhad some connexion with ALMEIDA; after whom he again enquired, with anardour uncommon even to the benevolence of HAMET. When all his questionshad been asked and answered, he appeared still unwilling to dismissAbdallah, though he seemed at a loss how to detain him; he wanted toknow, whether his daughter had yet received an offer of marriage, thoughhe was unwilling to discover his desire by a direct enquiry: but he soonfound, that nothing could be known, which was not directly asked, from aman whom reverence and humility kept silent before him, except whensomething was said which amounted to a command to speak. At length, however, he said, not without some hesitation, 'Is there no one, Abdallah, who will thank me for the preservation of thy daughter, with azeal equal to thy own?' 'Yes, ' replied Abdallah, 'that daughter whomthou hast preserved. ' This reply, though it was unexpected was pleasing:for HAMET was not only gratified to hear, that ALMEIDA had expressedherself warmly in his behalf, at least as a benefactor; but he judged, that if any man had been interested in her life as a lover, the answerwhich Abdallah had given him would not so readily have occurred to hismind. 

As this reflection kept HAMET a few moments silent, Abdallah withdrew;and HAMET, as he observed some marks of haste and confusion in hiscountenance, was unwilling longer to continue him in a situation, whichhe had now reason to think gave him pain. But Abdallah, who hadconceived a sudden thought that HAMET'S question was an indirectreproach of ALMEIDA, for not having herself solicited admission to hispresence; went in haste to her apartment, and ordered her immediatelyto make ready to attend him to the king. 

ALMEIDA, from whose mind the image of HAMET had not been absent a momentsince she first saw him, received this order with a mixture of pain andpleasure; of wishes, hopes, and apprehensions, that filled her bosomwith emotion, and covered her face with blushes. She had not courage toask the reason of the command, which she instantly prepared to obey; butthe tenderness of Abdallah, who perceived and pitied her distress, anticipated her wish. In a short time, therefore, he returned to thechamber of presence, and having received permission, he entered withALMEIDA in his hand. HAMET rose in haste to receive her, with a glow ofpleasure and impatience in his countenance; and having raised her fromthe ground, supported her in his arms, waiting to hear her voice; butthough she made many attempts, she could not speak. HAMET, who knew notto what he owed this sudden and unexpected interview, which, though hewished, he could contrive no means to obtain; imagined that ALMEIDA hadsome request, and therefore urged her tenderly to make it: but as shestill remained silent, he looked at Abdallah, as expecting to hear itfrom him. 'We have no wish, ' said Abdallah, 'but to atone for ouroffence; nor any request, but that my lord would now accept the thanksof ALMEIDA for the life which he has preserved, and impute the delay, not to ingratitude, but inadvertence: let me now take her back, as thygift; and let the light of thy favour be upon us. ' 'Take her then, ' saidHAMET; 'for I would give her only to thee. '

These words of HAMET did not escape the notice either of Abdallah orALMEIDA; but neither of them mentioned their conjectures to the other. ALMEIDA, who was inclined to judge of HAMET'S situation by her own, andwho recollected many little incidents, known only to herself, whichfavoured her wishes; indulged the hope, that she should again hear ofHAMET, with more confidence than her father; nor were her expectationsdisappointed. HAMET reflected with pleasure, that he had prepared theway for a more explicit declaration; and as his impatience increasedwith his passion every hour, he sent for Abdallah the next morning, andtold him, that he wished to be more acquainted with his daughter, with aview to make her his wife: 'As neither you nor your daughter are mysubjects, ' says HAMET, 'I cannot command you; and if you were, upon thisoccasion I would not. I do not want a slave, but a friend; not merely awoman, but a wife. If I find ALMEIDA such as my fancy has feigned her;if her mind corresponds with her form; and if I have reason to think, that she can give her heart to HAMET, and not merely her hand to theking; I shall be happy. ' To this declaration, Abdallah replied withexpressions of the profoundest submission and gratitude; and HAMETdismissed him, to prepare ALMEIDA to receive him in the afternoon of thesame day. 

CHAP. VII. 

As eight moons only had passed since the death of Solyman, and as thereverence of HAMET for the memory of his father would not suffer him tomarry till the year should be completed; he determined not to mentionALMEIDA to his brother, till the time when he could marry her was near. The fierce and haughty deportment of ALMORAN had now left HAMET no roomto doubt of his character: and though he had no apprehension that hewould make any attempts upon ALMEIDA, after she should be his wife; yethe did not know how much might justly be feared from his passion, if heshould see her and become enamoured of her, while she was yet a virginin the house of her father. 

ALMEIDA had not only unsullied purity of mind, but principles of refinedand exalted virtue; and as the life of HAMET was an example of all thatwas either great or good, Abdallah felt no anxiety upon leaving themtogether, except what arose from his fears, that his daughter would notbe able to secure the conquest she had made. 

As it was impossible for HAMET to have such an acquaintance with ALMEIDAas he desired, till he could enter into conversation with her upon termsof equality; it was his first care to sooth her into confidence andfamiliarity, and by degrees he succeeded: he soon found, in the freeintercourse of mind with mind, which he established instead of theimplicit submission which only ecchoed his own voice, how little of thepleasure that women were formed to give can be enjoyed, when they areconsidered merely as slaves to a tyrant's will, the passive subjects oftransient dalliance and casual enjoyment. The pleasure which he took inthe youthful beauty of ALMEIDA, was now endeared, exalted, and refined, by the tender sensibility of her heart, and by the reflexion of his ownfelicity from her eyes: when he admired the gracefulness of her motion, the elegance of her figure, the symmetry of her features, and the bloomof her complexion, he considered them as the decorations only of amind, capable of mixing with his own in the most exquisite delight, ofreciprocating all his ideas, and catching new pleasure from hispleasure. Desire was no longer appetite; it was imagination, it wasreason; it included remembrance of the past, and anticipation of thefuture; and its object was not the sex, but ALMEIDA. 

As HAMET never witheld any pleasure that it was in his power to impart, he soon acquainted Abdallah, that he waited only for a proper time toplace ALMEIDA upon the throne; but that he had some reasons for keepinga resolution, which he thought himself obliged to communicate to him, concealed from others. 

It happened, however, that some of the women who attended upon ALMEIDA, met with some female slaves belonging to the seraglio of ALMORAN, at thepublic baths, and related to them all the particulars of ALMEIDA'Spreservation by HAMET; that he had first conveyed her to his ownapartments, and had since been frequently with her in that which he hadassigned her in his palace: they were also lavish in the praise of herbeauty, and free in their conjectures what might be the issue of herintercourse with HAMET. 

Thus the situation of HAMET and ALMEIDA became the subject ofconversation in the seraglio of ALMORAN, who learnt it himself in ashort time from one of his women. 

He had hitherto professed great affection for HAMET, and HAMET wasdeceived by his professions: for notwithstanding the irregularities ofhis life, he did not think him capable of concealed malice; or ofoffering injury to another, except when he was urged by impetuouspassions to immediate pleasure. As there was, therefore, an appearanceof mutual affection between them, ALMORAN, though the report ofALMEIDA'S beauty had fired his imagination and fixed him in a resolutionto see her, did not think proper to attempt it without asking HAMET'Sconsent, and being introduced by his order; as he made no doubt of therebeing a connexion between them which would make him resent a contraryconduct. 

He took an opportunity, therefore, when they were alone in a summerpavilion that was built on a lake behind the palace, to reproach him, with an air of mirth, for having concealed a beauty near his apartments, though he pretended to have no seraglio. HAMET instantly discovered hissurprize and emotion by a blush, which the next moment left hiscountenance paler than the light clouds that pass by night over themoon. ALMORAN took no notice of his confusion; but that he might moreeffectually conceal his sentiments and prevent suspicion, he suddenlyadverted to another subject, while HAMET was hesitating what to reply. By this artifice HAMET was deceived; and concluded, that whateverALMORAN had heard of ALMEIDA, had passed slightly over his mind, andwas remembered but by chance; he, therefore, quickly recovered that easeand chearfulness, which always distinguished his conversation. 

ALMORAN observing the success of his artifice, soon after, as if by asudden and casual recollection, again mentioned the lady; and told him, he would congratulate Abdallah upon having resigned her to his bed. AsHAMET could not bear to think of ALMORAN'S mentioning ALMEIDA to herfather as his mistress, he replied, that he had no such intimacy withALMEIDA as he supposed; and that he had so high an opinion of hervirtue, as to believe, that if he should propose it she would notconsent. The imagination of ALMORAN caught new fire from beauties whichhe found were yet unenjoyed, and virtue which stamped them with superiorvalue by rendering them more difficult of access; and as HAMET hadrenounced a connection with her as a mistress, he wanted only to knowwhether he intended her for a wife. 

This secret he was contriving to discover, when HAMET, having reflected, that if he concealed this particular, ALMORAN might think himself atliberty to make what attempts he should think fit upon ALMEIDA, withoutbeing accountable to him, or giving him just cause of offence, put anend to his doubts, by telling him, he had such a design; but that itwould be some time before he should carry it into execution. Thisdeclaration increased ALMORAN'S impatience: still, however, he concealedhis interest in the conversation, which he now suffered to drop. 

He parted from his brother, without any farther mention of ALMEIDA butwhile he was yet near him, turned hastily back, and, as if merely togratify his curiosity, told him with a smile, that he must indulge himwith a fight of his Circassian; and desired he might accompany him inhis next visit, or at some more convenient time: with this request, HAMET, as he knew, not how to refuse it, complied; but it filled hismind with anxiety and trouble. 

He went immediately to ALMEIDA, and told her all that had happened; andas she saw that he was net without apprehensions of mischief from hisbrother's visit, she gently reproached him for doubting the fidelity ofher affection, as she supposed no power could be exerted by ALMORAN toinjure him, who in power was his equal. HAMET, in a transport oftenderness, assured her that he doubted neither her constancy nor herlove: but as to interrupt the comfort of her mind, would only double hisown distress, he did not tell her whence his apprehensions proceeded;nor indeed had they any determinate object, but arose in general fromthe character of his brother, and the probability of his becoming acompetitor, for what was essential to the happiness of his life. 

But if the happiness of HAMET was lessened, the infelicity of ALMORANwas increased. All the enjoyments that were in his power he neglected, his attention being wholly fixed upon that which was beyond his reach;he was impatient to see the beauty, who had taken intire possession ofhis mind; and the probability that he would be obliged to resign her toHAMET, tormented him with jealousy, envy, and indignation. 

HAMET, however, did not long delay to fulfil his promise to his brother;but having prepared ALMEIDA to receive him, he conducted him to herapartment. The idea which ALMORAN had formed in his imagination, wasexceeded by the reality, and his passion was proportionably increased;yet he found means not only to conceal it from HAMET, but from ALMEIDA, by affecting an air of levity and merriment, which is not lessincompatible with the pleasures than the pains of love. After they hadbeen regaled with coffee and sherbet, they parted; and HAMETcongratulated himself, that his apprehensions of finding in ALMORAN arival for ALMEIDA'S love, were now at an end. 

But ALMORAN, whose passions were become more violent by restraint, wasin a state of mind little better than distraction: one moment hedetermined to seize upon the person of ALMEIDA in the night, and secreteher in some place accessible only to himself; and the next toassassinate his brother, that he might at once destroy a rival both inempire and in love. But these designs were no sooner formed by hiswishes, than they were rejected by his fears: he was not ignorant, thatin any contest between him and HAMET, the voice of the public would beagainst him; especially in a contest, in which it would appear, thatHAMET had suffered wrong. 

Many other projects, equally rash, violent, and injurious, were by turnsconceived and rejected: and he came at last to no other determination, than still carefully to conceal his passion, till he should think ofsome expedient to gratify it; lest HAMET should have a just reason forrefusing to let him see the lady again, and remove her to some placewhich he might never be able to discover. 

CHAP. VIII. 

In the mean time, OMAR, to whom HAMET had from time to time disclosedthe minutest particulars of his situation and design, kept his eyealmost continually upon ALMORAN; and observed him with an attention andsagacity, which it was difficult either to elude or deceive. Heperceived, that he was more than usual restless and turbulent; that inthe presence of HAMET he frequently changed countenance; that hisbehaviour was artificial and inconsistent, frequently shifting fromgloomy discontent and furious agitation, to forced laughter and noisymerriment. He had also remarked, that he seemed most discomposed afterhe had been with HAMET to ALMEIDA, which happened generally once in aweek; that he was become fond of solitude, and was absent several daystogether from the apartment of his women. 

OMAR, who from this conduct of ALMORAN had begun to suspect hisprinciples, determined to introduce such topics of discourse, as mightlead him to discover the state of his mind; and enable him to enforceand confirm the principles he had taught him, by new proofs andillustrations. 

ALMORAN, who, since the death of his father, had nothing to apprehendfrom the discovery of sentiments which before he had been careful toconceal; now urged his objections against religion, when OMAR gave himopportunity, without reserve. 'You tell me, ' says he, 'of beings thatare immortal, because they are immaterial; beings which do not consistof parts, and which, therefore, can admit no solution, the only naturalcause of corruption and decay: but that which is not material, can haveno extension; and what has no extension, possesses no space; and of suchbeings, the mind itself, which you pretend to be such a being, has noconception. '

'If the mind, ' says OMAR, 'can perceive that there is in itself anysingle, property of such a being, it has irrefragable evidence that itis such a being; though its mode of existence, as distinct from matter, cannot now be comprehended. ' 'And what property of such a being, ' saidALMORAN, 'does the mind of man perceive in itself?' 'That of _acting_, said OMAR, 'without _motion_. You have no idea, that a materialsubstance can act, but in proportion as it moves: yet to _think_, is to_act_; and with the idea of thinking, the idea of motion is neverconnected: on the contrary, we always conceive the mind to be fixed, inproportion to the degree of ardour and intenseness with which the powerof thinking is exerted. Now, if that which is material cannot actwithout motion; and if man is conscious, that to think, is to act andnot to move; it follows, that there is, in man, somewhat that is notmatter; somewhat that has no extension, and that possesses no space;somewhat which, having no contexture or parts that can be dissolved orseparated, is exempted from all the natural causes of decay. '

OMAR paused; and ALMORAN having stood some moments without reply, heseized this opportunity to impress him with an awful sense of the powerand presence of the Supreme and Eternal Being, from whom his ownexistence was derived: 'Let us remember, ' said he, 'that to every act ofthis immaterial and immortal part, the Father of spirits, from whom itproceeds, is present: when I behold the busy multitudes that crowd themetropolis of Persia, in the persuit of business and projects infinitelycomplicated and various; and consider that every idea which passes overtheir minds, every conclusion, and every purpose, with all that theyremember of the past, and all that they imagine of the future, is atonce known to the Almighty, who without labour or confusion weighs everythought of every mind in His balance, and reserves it to the day ofretribution; my follies cover me with confusion, and my soul is humbledin the dust. '

ALMORAN, though he appeared to listen with attention, and offerednothing against the reasoning of OMAR, yet secretly despised it assophistry; which cunning only had rendered specious; and which he wasunable to confute, merely because it was subtil, and not because it wastrue: he had been led, by his passions, first to love, and then to adoptdifferent opinions; and as every man is inclined to judge of others byhimself, he doubted, whether the principles which OMAR had thus labouredto establish; were believed even by OMAR himself. 

Thus was the mind of ALMORAN to the instructions of OMAR, as a rockslightly covered with earth, is to the waters of heaven: the craggs areleft bare by the rain that washes them; and the same showers thatfertilize the field can only discover the sterility of the rock. 

OMAR, however, did not yet disclose his suspicions to HAMET, because hedid not yet see that it could answer any purpose. To remove ALMEIDA fromher apartment, would be to shew a distrust, for which there would notappear to be any cause; and to refuse ALMORAN access to her when hedesired it, might precipitate such measures as he might meditate, andengage him in some desperate attempt: he, therefore, contented himselfwith advising HAMET, to conceal the time of his marriage till theevening before he intended it should take place, without assigning thereason on which his advice was founded. 

To the council of OMAR, HAMET was implicitly obedient, as to therevelations of the Prophet; but, like his instructions, it was neglectedby ALMORAN, who became every moment more wretched. He had a gracefulperson, and a vigorous mind; he was in the bloom of youth, and had aconstitution that promised him length of days; he had power whichprinces were emulous to obey, and wealth by which whatever couldadminister to luxury might be bought, for every passion, and everyappetite, it was easy for him to procure a perpetual succession of newobjects: yet was ALMORAN, not only without enjoyment, but without peace;he was by turns pining with discontent, and raving with indignation; hisvices had extracted bitter from every sweet; and having exhaustednature for delight in vain, he was repining at the bounds in which hewas confined, and regretting the want of other powers as the cause ofhis misery. 

Thus the year of mourning for Solyman was compleated, without any act ofviolence on the part of ALMORAN, or of caution on the part of HAMET: buton the evening of the last day, HAMET, having secretly prepared everything for performing the solemnity in a private manner, acquaintedALMORAN by a letter, which OMAR, undertook to deliver, that he shouldcelebrate his marriage on the morrow. ALMORAN, who never doubted but heshould have notice of this event much longer before it was to happen, read the letter with a perturbation that it was impossible to conceal:he was alone in his private apartment, and taking his eye hastily fromthe paper, he crushed it together in his hand, and thrusting it into hisbosom, turned from OMAR without speaking; and OMAR, thinking himselfdismissed, withdrew. 

The passions which ALMORAN could no longer suppress, now burst out, in atorrent of exclamation: 'Am I then, said he, 'blasted for ever with adouble curse, divided empire and disappointed love! What is dominion, ifit is not possessed alone? and what is power, which the dread of rivalpower perpetually controuls? Is it for me to listen in silence to thewrangling of slaves, that I may at last apportion to them what, with aclamorous insolence, they demand as their due! as well may the sunlinger in his course, and the world mourn in darkness for the day, thatthe glow-worm may still be seen to glimmer upon, the earth, and theowls and bats that haunt the sepulchres of the dead enjoy a longernight. Yet this have I done, because this has been done by HAMET: and myheart sickens in vain with the desire of beauty, because my powerextends not to ALMEIDA. With dominion undivided and ALMEIDA, I should beALMORAN; but without them, I am less than nothing. '

OMAR, who, before he has passed the pavilion, heard a sound which heknew to be the voice of ALMORAN, returned hastily to the chamber inwhich he left him, believing he had withdrawn too soon, and that theking, as he knew no other was present, was speaking to him: he soon drewnear enough to hear what was said; and while he was standing torpid insuspense, dreading to be discovered, and not knowing how to retire, ALMORAN turned about. 

At first, both stood motionless with confusion and amazement; busALMORAN'S pride soon surmounted his other passions, and his disdain ofOMAR gave his guilt the firmness of virtue. 

'It is true, ' said he, 'that thou hast stolen the secret of my heart;but do not think, that I fear it should be known: though my poignardcould take it back with thy life; I leave it with thee. To reproach, orcurse thee, would do thee honour, and lift thee into an importance whichotherwise thou canst never reach. ' ALMORAN then turned from him with acontemptuous frown: but OMAR caught him by the robe; and prostratinghimself upon the ground, intreated to be heard. His importunity atlength prevailed; and he attempted to exculpate himself, from the chargeof having insiduously intruded upon the privacy of his prince, butALMORAN sternly interrupted him: 'And what art thou, ' said he, 'that Ishould care, whether thou art innocent or guilty?' 'If not for mysake, ' said OMAR, 'listen for thy own; and though my duty is despised, let my affection be heard. That thou art not happy, I know; and I nowknow the cause. Let my lord pardon the presumption of his slave: he thatseeks to satisfy all his wishes, must be wretched; he only can be happy, by whom some are suppressed. ' At these words ALMORAN snatched his robefrom the hand of OMAR, and spurned him in a transport of rage andindignation: 'The suppression of desire, ' said he, 'is such happiness, as that of the deaf who do not remember to have heard. If it is virtue, know, that, as virtue, I despise it; for though it may secure theobedience of the slave, it can only degrade the prerogative of a prince. I cast off all restraint, as I do thee: begone, therefore, to HAMET, andsee me no more. '

OMAR obeyed without reply; and ALMORAN being again alone, the conflictin his mind was renewed with greater violence than before. He felt allthat he had disguised to OMAR, with the keenest sensibility; andanticipated the effects of his detection, with unutterable anguish andregret. He walked backward and forward with a hasty but interruptedpace; sometimes stopping short, and pressing his hand hard upon hisbrow; and sometimes by violent gestures showing the agitation of hismind: he sometimes stood silent with his eyes, fixed upon, the ground, and his arms folded together; and sometimes a sudden agony of thoughtforced him into loud and tumultuous exclamations: he cursed theimpotence of mind that had suffered his thoughts to escape from himunawares; without reflecting that he was even then repeating the folly;and while he felt himself the victim of vice, he could not suppress hiscontempt of virtue: 'If I must perish, ' said he, 'I will at least perishunsubdued: I will quench no wish that nature kindles in my bosom; norshall my lips utter any prayer, but for new powers to feed the flame. '

As he uttered this expression, he felt the palace shake; he heard arushing, like a blast in the desart; and a being of more than humanappearance stood before him. ALMORAN, though he was terrified, was nothumbled; and he stood expecting the event, whether evil or good, ratherwith obduracy than courage. 

'Thou seest, ' says the Appearance, 'a Genius, whom the daring purpose ofthy mind has convoked from the middle region, where he was appointed towait the signal; and who is now permitted to act in concert with thywill. Is not this the language of thy heart?--"Whatever pleasure I cansnatch from the hand of time, as he passes by me, I will secure formyself: my passions shall be strong, that my enjoyments may be great;for what is the portion allotted to man, but the joyful madness thatprolongs the hours of festivity, the fierce delight that is extortedfrom injury by revenge, and the sweet succession of varied pleasureswhich the wish that is ever changing prepares for love?"'

'Whatever thou art, ' said ALMORAN, 'whose voice has thus disclosed thesecret of my soul, accept my homage; for I will worship thee: and bethou henceforth my wisdom and my strength. '

'Arise, ' said the Genius, 'for therefore am I sent. To thy own powers, mine shall be superadded: and if, as weak only, thou hast been wretched;henceforth thou shalt be happy. Take no thought for to-morrow;to-morrow, my power shall be employed in thy behalf. Be not affrightedat any prodigy; but put thy confidence in me. ' While he was yet speakingand the eyes of ALMORAN were fixed upon him, a cloud gathered round him;and the next moment dissolving again into air, he disappeared. 

CHAP. IX

ALMORAN, when he recovered from his astonishment, and had reflected uponthe prodigy, determined to wait the issue, and refer all his hopes tothe interposition of the Genius, without attempting any thing to retardthe marriage; at which he resolved to be present, that he might improveany supernatural event which might be produced in his favour. 

HAMET, in the mean time, was anticipating the morrow with a mixture ofanxiety and pleasure; and though he had no reason to think any thingcould prevent his marriage, yet he wished it was over, with animpatience that was considerably increased by fear. 

Though the anticipation of the great event that was now so near, kepthim waking the greatest part of the night, yet he rose early in themorning; and while he waited till ALMEIDA should be ready to see him, hewas told that OMAR was without, and desired admittance. When he came in, HAMET, who always watched his countenance as a mariner the stars ofheaven, perceived that it was obscured with perplexity and grief. 'Tellme, ' said HAMET, 'whence is the sorrow that I discover in thy face?' 'Iam sorrowful, ' said OMAR, 'not for myself, but for thee. ' At these wordsHAMET stept backward, and fixed his eyes upon OMAR, without power tospeak. 'Consider, said OMAR, 'that thou art not a man only, but aprince: consider also, that immortality is before thee; and that thyfelicity, during the endless ages of immortality, depends upon thyself:fear not, therefore, what thou canst suffer from others; the evil andthe good of life are transient as the morning dew, and over these onlythe hand of others can prevail. '

HAMET, whose attachment to life was strong, and whose expectations ofimmediate enjoyment were high, did not feel the force of what OMAR hadsaid, though he assented to its truth. 'Tell me, ' said he, 'at once, what thou fearest for me; deliver me from the torments of suspense, andtrust my own fortitude to save me from despair. ' 'Know then, ' said OMAR, 'that thou art hated by ALMORAN, and that he loves ALMEIDA. ' At thisdeclaration, the astonishment of HAMET was equal to his concern; and hewas in doubt whether to believe or disbelieve what he heard: but themoment he recollected the wisdom and integrity of OMAR, his doubts wereat an end; and having recovered from his surprize, he was about to makesuch enquiries as might gratify the anxious and tumultuous curiositywhich was excited in his breast, when OMAR, lifting up his hand, andbeginning again to speak, HAMET remained silent. 

'Thou knowest, ' said OMAR, 'that when my checks were yet ruddy withyouth, and my limbs were braced by vigour, that mine eye was guided toknowledge by the lamp that is kindled at midnight, and much of what ishidden in the innermost recesses of nature, was discovered to me: myprayer ascended in secret to Him, with whom there is wisdom fromeverlasting to everlasting, and He illuminated my darkness with Hislight. I know, by such sensations as the world either feels not at all, or feels unnoticed without knowledge of their use, when the powers thatare invisible are permitted to mingle in the walks of men; and well Iknow, that some being, who is more than mortal, has joined with ALMORANagainst thee, since the veil of night was last spread upon the earth. '

HAMET, whose blood was chilled with horror, and whose nerves were nolonger obedient to his will, after several ineffectual attempts tospeak, looked up at OMAR; and striking his hand upon his breast, criedout, in an earnest, but faultering voice, 'What shall I do?' 'Thou mustdo, ' said OMAR, 'that which is RIGHT. Let not thy foot be drawn by anyallurement, or driven by any terror, from the path of virtue. While thouart there, thou art in safety: and though the world should unite againstthee, by the united world thou canst not be hurt. '

'But what friendly power, ' said HAMET, 'shall guard even the path ofvirtue from grief and pain; from the silent shaft of disappointed love, or the sounding scourge of outrageous jealousy? These, surely, haveovertaken the foot of perseverance; and by these, though I shouldpersevere, may my feet be overtaken. ' 'What thou sayest, ' replied OMAR, 'is true; and it is true also, that the tempest which roots up theforest, is driven over the mountain with unabated rage: but from themountain, what can it take more than the vegetable dust, which the handof nature has scattered upon the moss that covers it? As the dust is tothe mountain, so is all that the storms of life can take from virtue, tothe sum of good which the Omnipotent has appointed for its reward. 'HAMET, whose eye now expressed a kind of doubtful confidence, a hopethat was repressed by fear, remained still silent; and OMAR, perceivingthe state of his mind, proceeded to fortify it by new precepts: 'Ifheaven, ' said he, 'should vanish like a vapour, and this firm orb ofearth should crumble into dust, the virtuous mind would stand unmovedamidst the ruins of nature: for He, who has appointed the heavens andthe earth to fail, has said to virtue, "Fear not; for thou canst neitherperish, nor be wretched. " Call up thy strength, therefore, to the fightin which thou art sure of conquest: do thou only that which is RIGHT, and leave the event to Heaven. '

HAMET, in this conference with OMAR, having gradually recovered hisfortitude; and the time being now near, when he was to conduct ALMEIDAto the court of the palace, where the marriage ceremony was to beperformed; they parted with mutual benedictions, each recommending theother to the protection of the Most High. 

At the appointed hour, the princes of the court being assembled, themufti and the imans being ready, and ALMORAN seated upon his throne;HAMET and ALMEIDA came forward, and were placed one on the right hand, and the other on the left. The mufti was then advancing, to hear and torecord the mutual promise which was to unite them; ALMORAN wasexecrating the appearance of the Genius, as a delusive dream, in all thetumults of anguish and despair; and HAMET began to hope, that thesuspicions of OMAR had been ill founded; when a stroke of thunder shookthe palace to its foundations, and a cloud rose from the ground, like athick smoke, between HAMET and ALMEIDA. 

ALMORAN, who was inspired with new confidence and hope, by that whichhad struck the rest of the assembly with terror, started from his seatwith an ardent and furious look; and at the same moment, a voice, thatissued from the cloud, pronounced with a loud but hollow tone, 'Fate has decreed, to ALMORAN, ALMEIDA. '

At these words, ALMORAN rushed forward, and placing himself by the sideof ALMEIDA, the cloud disappeared; and he cried out, 'Let me nowproclaim to the world the secret, which to this moment I have hidden inmy bosom: I love ALMEIDA. The being who alone knew my love, has now bymiracle approved it. Let his decree be accomplished. ' He then commandedthat the ceremony should proceed; and seizing the hand of the lady, began to repeat that part of it which was to have been repeated byHAMET. But ALMEIDA instantly drew her hand from him in an agony ofdistress; and HAMET, who till then had stood motionless with amazementand horror, started from his trance, and springing forward rushedbetween them. ALMORAN turned fiercely upon him; but HAMET, who havingbeen warned by OMAR, knew the prodigy to be effected by some evil beingwhom it was virtue to resist, laid his hand upon his scymitar, and, witha frown of indignation and defiance, commanded him to stand off: 'I nowknow thee, ' said he, 'as a man; and, therefore, as a brother I know theenot. '

ALMORAN reflecting, that the foundation of this reproach was unknown toall who were present, and that to them he would therefore appear to beinjured; looked round with an affected smile of wonder and compassion, as appealing to them from a charge that was thus fiercely andinjuriously brought against him, and imputing it to the violence ofsudden passions by which truth and reason were overborne. The eye ofHAMET at once detected the artifice, which he disdained to expose; he, therefore, commanded the guard that attended to carry off ALMEIDA to herapartment. The guard was preparing to obey, when ALMORAN, who thought hehad now such an opportunity to get her into his own power as would neverreturn, ordered them to see her safely lodged in his own seraglio. 

The men, who thus received opposite commands from persons to whom theyowed equal obedience, stood still in suspense, not knowing which toprefer: ALMORAN then reproached them with want of obedience, not to him, but to God, appealing to the prodigy for the justification of his claim. HAMET, on the contrary, repeated his order, with a look and emphasisscarce less commanding than the thunder and the voice. But the priestsinterposing in favour of ALMORAN, upon presumption that his right hadbeen decided by a superior power; the guard rushed between HAMET andALMEIDA, and with looks that expressed the utmost reluctance and regret, attempted to separate their hands, which were clasped in each other. Shewas affrighted at the violence, but yet more at the apprehension of whatwas to follow; she, therefore, turned her eyes upon HAMET, conjuringhim not to leave her, in a tone of tenderness and distress which it isimpossible to describe: he replied with a vehemence that was worthy ofhis passion, 'I will not leave thee, ' and immediately drew his sabre. Atthe same moment they forced her from him; and a party having interposedto cover those that were carrying her off, HAMET lifted up his weapon toforce his passage through them; but was prevented by OMAR, who, havingpressed through the crowd, presented himself before him. 'Stop me not, 'said HAMET, 'it is for ALMEIDA. ' 'If thou wouldst save ALMEIDA, ' saidOMAR, 'and thyself, do that only which is RIGHT. What have these donewho oppose thee, more than they ought? and what end can theirdestruction answer, but to stain thy hands with unavailing murder? Thoucanst only take the life of a few faithful slaves, who will not lift uptheir hands against thee: thou canst not rescue ALMEIDA from thybrother; but thou canst preserve thyself from guilt. '

These words of OMAR suspended the rage of HAMET, like a charm; andreturning his scymitar into its sheath, 'Let me then, ' said he, 'suffer, and be guiltless. It is true, that against these ranks my single armmust be ineffectual; but if my wrongs can rouse a nation to repress thetyranny, that will shortly extend over it the injuries that now reachonly to me, justice shall be done to HAMET. ' Then turning to ALMORAN, 'Henceforth, ' said he, 'the kingdom shall be mine or thine. To govern inconcert with thee, is to associate with the powers of hell. The beingsthat are superior to evil, are the friends of HAMET; and if these arethy enemies, what shall be thy defence?' ALMORAN replied only by acontemptuous smile; and the assembly being dismissed he retired to hisapartment: and HAMET and OMAR went out to the people, who had gatheredin an incredible multitude about the palace. 

CHAP. X. 

A rumour of what had happened within had reached them, which somebelieved, and some doubted: but when they saw OMAR and HAMET returntogether, and observed that their looks were full of resentment andtrouble, they became silent with attention in a moment; which OMARobserving, addressed them with an eloquence of which they had oftenacknowledged the force, and of which they never repented the effect. 

He told them the tender connexion between HAMET and ALMEIDA, anddisclosed the subtil hypocrisy of ALMORAN: he expatiated upon the follyof supposing, that the power that was supreme in goodness and truth, should command a violation of vows that had been mutually interchanged, and often repeated; and devote to ALMORAN the beauties, which could onlybe voluntarily surrendered to HAMET. They heard him with a vacantcountenance of surprize and wonder; and while he waited for their reply, they agreed among themselves, that no man could avoid the destiny thatwas written upon his head; and that if ALMEIDA had thus been taken fromHAMET, and given to ALMORAN, it was an event that by an unchangeabledecree was appointed to happen; and that, therefore, it was their dutyto acquiesce. OMAR then beckoned with his hand for audience a secondtime, and told them, that ALMORAN had not only practised the arts ofsorcery to deprive HAMET of ALMEIDA, but that he meditated a design tousurp the sole dominion, and deprive him of the share of the governmentto which he had a right by the will of Solyman his father. This alsothey heard with the same sentiments of wonder and acquiescence: If it isdecreed, said they, that ALMORAN shall be king alone, who can preventit? and if it is not, who can bring it to pass? 'But know ye not, ' saidOMAR, 'that when the end is appointed, the means are appointed also. Ifit is decreed that one of you shall this night die by poison, is it notdecreed also that he shall drink it?'

The crowd now gazed upon each other, without reply, for some minutes:and at last they only said, that no effort of theirs could change theuniversal appointment of all things; that if ALMORAN was to be kingalone, he would be so notwithstanding all opposition; and that if he wasnot to be king alone, no attempt of his own, however supported, couldmake him so. 'I will not, ' said OMAR, 'contradict your opinion; I willonly tell you what I have heard, and leave you to, suffer the calamitieswhich threaten you, with a fortitude and resignation that are suitableto your principles; having no consolation to offer you, but that HAMET, whose destiny it was not to make you happy, will suffer with you theevils, that neither he nor you could prevent: the mournful comfort ofthis fellowship, he will not be denied; for he loves you too well, towish even to be happy alone. ' The crowd fixed their eyes upon HAMET, forwhom their affection was now strongly moved, with looks of much greaterintelligence and sensibility; a confused murmur, like the fall of thepebbles upon the beach when the surge retires from the shore, expressedtheir gratitude to HAMET, and their apprehensions for themselves. 

OMAR waited till they were again silent, and then improved the advantagehe had gained. 'ALMORAN, ' said he, 'considers you as the slaves of hispower; HAMET as the objects of his benevolence: your lives and yourproperties, in the opinion of ALMORAN, are below his notice; but HAMETconsiders his own interest as connected with yours. When ALMORAN, therefore, shall be unchecked by the influence of HAMET; he will leaveyou to the mercy of some delegated tyrant, whose whole power will beexerted to oppress you, that he may enrich himself. '

A new fire was now kindled in their eyes, and their cheeks glowed withindignation at the wrongs that threatened them; they were no longerdisposed to act upon the principles of fatality, as they had perverselyunderstood them; and they argued at once like reasonable and freebeings, whose actions were in their choice, and who had no doubt butthat their actions would produce adequate effects. They recollected thatOMAR had, in the reign of Solyman, often rescued them from suchoppression, as now threatened them; and that the power of HAMET hadsince interposed in their behalf, when ALMORAN would have stretched hisprerogative to their hurt, or have left them a prey to the farmer of atax. 'Shall HAMET, ' said they, 'be deprived of the power, that heemploys only for our benefit; and shall it center in ALMORAN, who willabuse it to our ruin? Shall we rather support ALMORAN in the wrong hehas done to HAMET, than HAMET to obtain justice of ALMORAN? HAMET isour king; let him command us, and we will obey. ' This was uttered with ashout that ecchoed from the mountains beyond the city, and continuednear a full hour. In the mean time, the multitude was increasing everymoment; and the troops that lay in and near the city, having taken arms, fell in with the stream: they were secretly attached to HAMET, underwhose eye they had been formed, and of whose bounty they had oftenpartaken; and their fear being removed by the general cry, which leftthem no room to apprehend an opposition in favour of ALMORAN, they werenow at full liberty to follow their inclinations. 

In the mean time, ALMORAN, who had retired to the innermost court of thepalace, had heard the tumult, and was alarmed for his safety: he ranfrom room to room, confused and terrified, without attempting ordirecting any thing either for his defence or escape, yet he sent everymoment to know the state of the insurrection, and to what end its forcewould be directed. 

Among those whom accident rather than choice had attached to theinterest of ALMORAN, were Osmyn and Caled: they were both distinguishedby his favour; and each had conceived hopes that, if he should possessthe throne alone, he would delegate his authority to him. ALMORAN nowordered them to take the command of the troops, that were appointed toattend his person as their peculiar duty, with as many others as had notdeclared for HAMET, and to secure all the avenues that led to hisseraglio. 

OMAR and HAMET were now on horseback, and had begun to form the troopsthat had joined them, and as many others as were armed, which werebefore mingled together in a confused multitude. An account of this wasbrought to ALMORAN by Osmyn; and threw him into a perturbation andperplexity, that disgraced his character, and confounded his attendants. He urged Osmyn, in whom he most confided, to dispatch, without givinghim any orders to execute; then turning from him, he uttered, in a lowand inarticulate voice, the most passionate exclamations of distress andterror, being struck with the thought that his guard might betray him:when he recollected himself, and perceived that Osmyn was still present, he burst into a rage, and snatching out his poignard, he swore by thesoul of the Prophet, that if he did not instantly attempt something, hewould stab him to the heart. Osmyn drew back trembling and confused; buthaving yet received no orders, he would have spoken, but ALMORAN drovehim from his presence with menaces and execrations. 

The moment that Osmyn left him, his rage subsided in his fears, and hisfears were mingled with remorse: 'Which way soever I turn, ' said he, 'Isee myself surrounded by destruction. I have incensed Osmyn byunreasonable displeasure, and causeless menaces. He must regard me atonce with abhorrence and contempt: and it is impossible, but he shouldrevolt to HAMET. '

In this agony, the terrors of futurity rushed upon his mind with alltheir force; and he darted as if at the bite of a scorpion: 'To me, 'said he, 'death, that now approaches, will be but the beginning ofsorrow. I shall be cut off at once from enjoyment, and from hope; andthe dreadful moment is now at hand. ' While he was speaking, the palaceagain shook, and he stood again in the presence of the Genius. 

'ALMORAN, ' said the inhabitant of the unapparent world, 'the evil whichthou fearest, shall not be upon thee. Make haste, and shew thyself fromthe gallery to the people, and the tumult of faction shall be stillbefore thee: tell them, that their rebellion is not against thee only, but against Him by whom thou reignest: appeal boldly to that power for aconfirmation of thy words, and rely for the attesting sign upon me. 'ALMORAN, who had stooped with his face to the ground, now looked upward, and found himself alone: he hasted, therefore, to follow the directionshe had received; and hope was again kindled in his bosom. 

Osmyn, in the mean time, made a proper disposition of the troops nowunder his command; and had directed a select company to remain near theperson of the king, that they might at least make good his retreat. While he was waiting at his post, and revolving in his mind the totaldisappointment of his hopes, and considering what he should do if HAMETshould establish himself alone, he was joined by Caled. 

Caled had a secret enmity against Osmyn, as his rival in the favour ofALMORAN; but as he had concealed his own pretensions from Osmyn, Osmynhad no ill will against Caled. As they were now likely to be involvedin one common calamity, by the ruin of the prince whose party they hadespoused; Caled's enmity subsided, and the indifference of Osmyn waswarmed into kindness: mutual distress produced mutual confidence; andCaled, after condoling with Osmyn on their present hopeless situation, proposed that they should draw off their forces, and revolt to HAMET. This proposition Osmyn rejected, not only from principle, but frominterest: 'Now we have accepted of a trust, ' said he, 'we ought not tobetray it. If we had gone over to HAMET, when he first declared againsthis brother, he would have received us with joy, and probably haverewarded our service; but I know, that his virtue will abhor us fortreachery, though practised in his favour: treachery, under the dominionof HAMET, will not only cover us with dishonour, but will probablydevote us to death. '

In this reasoning, Caled could not but acquiesce; he felt himselfsecretly but forcibly reproved, by the superior virtue of Osmyn: andwhile he regretted his having made a proposal, which had been rejectednot only as imprudent but infamous; he concluded, that Osmyn would everafter suspect and despise him; and he, therefore, from a new cause, conceived new enmity against him. They parted, however, without anyappearance of suspicion or disgust; and, in a short time, they were incircumstances very different from their expectations. 

VOLUME SECOND

CHAP. XI. 

ALMORAN had now reached the gallery; and when the multitude saw him, they shouted as in triumph, and demanded that he should surrender. HAMET, who also perceived him at a distance, and was unwilling that anyviolence should be offered to his person, pressed forward, and when hewas come near, commanded silence. At this moment ALMORAN, with a loudvoice, reproached them with impiety and folly; and appealing to thepower, whom in his person they had offended, the air suddenly grew dark, a flood of lightning descended from the sky, and a peal of thunder wasarticulated into these words:

 Divided sway, the God who reigns alone Abhors; and gives to ALMORAN the throne. 

The multitude stood aghast at the prodigy; and hiding their faces withtheir hands, every one departed in silence and confusion, and HAMET andOMAR were left alone. OMAR was taken by some of the soldiers who hadadhered to ALMORAN, but HAMET made his escape. 

ALMORAN, whose wishes were thus far accomplished by the intervention ofa power superior to his own, exulted in the anticipation of thathappiness which he now supposed to be secured; and was fortified in hisopinion, that he had been wretched only because he had been weak, andthat to multiply and not to suppress his wishes was the way to acquirefelicity. 

As he was returning from the gallery, he was met by Osmyn and Caled, whohad heard the supernatural declaration in his behalf, and learned itseffects. ALMORAN, in that hasty flow of unbounded but capricious favour, which, in contracted minds, is the effect only of unexpected goodfortune, raised Osmyn from his feet to his bosom: 'As in the trial, 'said he, 'thou hast been faithful, I now invest thee with a superiortrust. The toils of state shall from this moment devolve upon thee; andfrom this moment, the delights of empire unallayed shall be mine: I willrecline at ease, remote from every eye but those that reflect my ownfelicity; the felicity that I shall taste in secret, surrounded by thesmiles of beauty, and the gaities of youth. Like heaven, I will reignunseen; and like heaven, though unseen, I will be adored. ' Osmynreceived this delegation of power with a tumultuous pleasure, that wasexpressed only by silence and confusion. ALMORAN remarked it; andexulting in the pride of power, he suddenly changed his aspect, andregarding Osmyn, who was yet blushing, and whose eyes were swimming intears of gratitude, with a stern and ardent countenance; 'Let me, however, ' said he, 'warn thee to be watchful in thy trust: beware, thatno rude commotion violate my peace by thy fault; lest my anger sweepthee in a moment to destruction. ' He then directed his eye to Caled:'And thou too, ' said he, 'hast been faithful; be thou next in honour andin power to Osmyn. Guard both of you my paradise from dread and care;fulfill the duty that I have assigned you, and live. '

He was then informed by a messenger, that HAMET had escaped, and thatOMAR was taken. As he now despised the power both of HAMET and OMAR, heexpressed neither concern nor anger that HAMET had fled; but he orderedOMAR to be brought before him. 

When OMAR appeared bound and disarmed, he regarded him with a smile ofinsult and derision; and asked him, what he had now to hope. 'I have, indeed, ' said OMAR, 'much less to hope, than thou hast to fear. ' 'Thyinsolence, ' said ALMORAN, 'is equal to thy folly: what power on earth isthere, that I should fear?' 'Thy own, ' said OMAR. 'I have not leisurenow, ' replied ALMORAN, 'to hear the paradoxes of thy philosophyexplained: but to shew thee, that I fear not thy power, thou shalt live. I will leave thee to hopeless regret; to wiles that have been scornedand defeated; to the unheeded petulance of dotage; to the fondness thatis repayed with neglect; to restless wishes, to credulous hopes, and toderided command: to the slow and complicated torture of despised oldage; and that, when thou shalt long have abhorred thy being, shalldestroy it. ' 'The misery, ' said OMAR, 'which thou hast menaced, it isnot in thy power to inflict. As thou hast taken from me all that Ipossessed by the bounty of thy father, it is true that I am poor; it istrue also, that my knees are now feeble, and bend with the weight ofyears that is upon me. I am, as thou art, a man; and therefore I haveerred: but I have still kept the narrow path in view with a faithfulvigilance, and to that I have soon returned: the past, therefore, I donot regret; and the future I have no cause to fear. In Him who is mostmerciful, I have hope; and in that hope even how I rejoice before thee. My portion in the present hour, is adversity: but I receive it, not onlywith humility, but thankfulness; for I know, that whatever is ordainedis best. '

ALMORAN, in whose heart there were no traces of OMAR'S virtue, andtherefore no foundation for his confidence; sustained himself againsttheir force, by treating them as hypocrisy and affectation: 'I know, 'says he, 'that thou hast long learned to eccho the specious and pompoussounds, by which hypocrites conceal their wretchedness, and excite theadmiration of folly and the contempt of wisdom: yet thy walk, in thisplace, shall be still unrestrained. Here the splendor of my felicityshall fill thy heart with envy, and cover thy face with confusion; andfrom thee shall the world be instructed, that the enemies of ALMORAN canmove no passion in his breast but contempt, and that most to punish themis to permit them to live. '

OMAR, whose eye had till now been fixed upon the ground, regardedALMORAN with a calm but steady countenance: 'Here then, ' said he, 'willI follow thee, constant as thy shadow; tho', as thy shadow, unnoticed orneglected: here shall mine eye watch those evils, that were appointedfrom everlasting to attend upon guilt: and here shall my voice warn theeof their approach. From thy breast may they be averted by righteousness!for without this, though all the worlds that roll above thee should, toaid thee, unite all their power, that power can aid thee only to bewretched. '

ALMORAN, in all the pride of gratified ambition, invested with dominionthat had no limits, and allied with powers that were more than mortal;was overawed by this address, and his countenance grew pale. But thenext moment, disdaining to be thus controuled by the voice of a slave, his cheeks were suffused with the blushes of indignation: he turned fromOMAR, in scorn, anger, and confusion, without reply; and OMAR departedwith the calm dignity of a benevolent and superior being, to whom thesmiles and frowns of terrestrial tyranny were alike indifferent, and inwhom abhorrence of the turpitude of vice was mingled with companion forits folly. 

CHAP. XII. 

In the mean time, ALMEIDA, who had been conveyed to an apartment inALMORAN'S seraglio, and delivered to the care of those who attended uponhis women, suffered all that grief and terror could inflict upon agenerous, a tender, and a delicate mind; yet in this complicateddistress, her attention was principally fixed upon HAMET. Thedisappointment of his hope, and the violation of his right, were thechief objects of her regret and her fears, in all that had alreadyhappened, and in all that was still to come; every insult that might beoffered to herself, she considered as an injury to him. Yet thethoughts of all that he might suffer in her person, gave way to herapprehensions of what might befall him in his own: in his situation, every calamity that her imagination could conceive, was possible; herthoughts were, therefore, bewildered amidst an endless variety ofdreadful images, which started up before them which way soever they wereturned; and it was impossible that she could gain any certainintelligence of his fate, as the splendid prison in which she was nowconfined, was surrounded by mutes and eunuchs, of whom nothing could belearned, or in whole report no confidence could be placed. 

While her mind was in this state of agitation and distress, sheperceived the door open, and the next moment ALMORAN entered theapartment. When she saw him, she turned from him with a look ofunutterable anguish; and hiding her face in her veil, she burst intotears. The tyrant was moved with her distress; for unfeeling obduracy isthe vice only of the old, whose sensibility has been worn away by thehabitual perpetration of reiterated wrongs. 

He approached her with looks of kindness, and his voice wasinvoluntarily modulated to pity; she was, however, too much absorbed inher own sorrows, to reply. He gazed upon her with tenderness andadmiration; and taking her hand into his own, he pressed it ardently tohis bosom: his compassion soon kindled into desire, and from soothingher distress, he began to solicit her love. This instantly roused herattention, and resentment now suspended her grief: she turned from himwith a firm and haughty step, and instead of answering his professions, reproached him with her wrongs. ALMORAN, that he might at once addressher virtue and her passions, observed, that though he had loved her fromthe first moment he had seen her, yet he had concealed his passion evenfrom her, till it had received the sanction of an invisible and superiorpower; that he came, therefore, the messenger of heaven; and that heoffered her unrivalled empire and everlasting love. To this sheanswered only by an impatient and fond enquiry after HAMET. 'Think notof HAMET, ' said ALMORAN; 'for why should he who is rejected of Heaven, be still the favorite of ALMEIDA?' 'If thy hand, ' said ALMEIDA, 'couldquench in everlasting darkness, that vital spark of intellectual fire, which the word of the Almighty has kindled in my breast to burn forever, then might ALMEIDA cease to think of HAMET; but while that shalllive, whatever form it shall inhabit, or in whatever world it shallreside, his image shall be for ever present, and to him shall my love befor ever true. ' This glowing declaration of her love for HAMET, wasimmediately succeeded by a tender anxiety for his safety; and a suddenreflection upon the probability of his death, and the danger of hissituation if alive, threw her again into tears. 

ALMORAN, whom the ardour and impetuosity of her passions kept sometimessilent, and sometimes threw into confusion, again attempted to sooth andcomfort her: she often urged him to tell her what was become of hisbrother, and he as often evaded the question. As she was about to renewher enquiry, and reflected that it had already been often made, and hadnot yet been answered, she thought that ALMORAN had already put him todeath: this threw her into a new agony, of which he did not immediatelydiscover the cause; but as he soon learned it from her reproaches andexclamations, he perceived that he could not hope to be heard, while shewas in doubt about the safety of HAMET. In order, therefore, to soothher mind, and prevent its being longer possessed with an image thatexcluded every other; he assumed a look of concern and astonishment atthe imputation of a crime, which was at once so horrid and sounnecessary. After a solemn deprecation of such enormous guilt, heobserved, that as it was now impossible for HAMET to succeed as hisrival, either in empire or in love, without the breach of a command, which he knew his virtue would implicitly obey; he had no motive eitherto desire his death, or to restrain his liberty: 'His walk' says he, 'isstill uncircumscribed in Persia, and except this chamber, there is nopart of the palace to which he is not admitted. '

To this declaration ALMEIDA listened, as to the music of paradise; andit suspended for a-while every passion, but her love: the sudden ease ofher mind made her regardless of all about her, and she had in thisinterval suffered ALMORAN to remove her veil, without reflecting uponwhat he was doing. The moment she recollected herself, she made a gentleeffort to recover it, with some confusion, but without anger. Thepleasure that was expressed in her eyes, the blush that glowed upon hercheek, and the contest about the veil, which to an amorous imaginationhad an air of dalliance, concurred to heighten the passion of ALMORANalmost to phrensy: she perceived her danger in his looks, and herspirits instantly took the alarm. He seized her hand, and gazingardently upon her, he conjured her, with a tone and emphasis thatstrongly expressed the tumultuous vehemence of his wishes, that shewould renounce the rites which had been forbidden above, and that shewould receive him to whom by miracle she had been alloted. 

ALMEIDA, whom the manner and voice of ALMORAN had terrified intosilence, answered him at first only with a look that expressed aversionand disdain, overawed by fear. 'Wilt thou not, ' said ALMORAN, 'fulfillthe decrees of Heaven? I conjure thee, 'by Heaven, to answer. ' Fromthis solemn reference to Heaven, ALMEIDA derived new fortitude: sheinstantly recollected, that she stood in the presence of Him, by whosepermission only every other power, whether visible or invisible, candispense evil or good: 'Urge no more, ' said she, 'as the decree ofHeaven, that which is inconsistent with Divine perfection. Can He inwhose hand my heart is, command me to wed the man whom he has notenabled me to love? Can the Pure, the Just, the Merciful, have ordainedthat I should suffer embraces which I loath, and violate vows which Hislaws permitted me to make? Can He have ordained a perfidious, aloveless, and a joyless prostitution? What if a thousand prodigiesshould concur to enforce it a thousand times, the deed itself would be astronger proof that those prodigies were the works of darkness, thanthose prodigies that the deed was commanded by the Father of light. '

ALMORAN, whose hopes were now blasted to the root, who perceived thatthe virtue of ALMEIDA could neither be deceived nor overborne; that sheat once contemned his power, and abhorred his love; gave way to all thefuries of his mind, which now slumbered no more: his countenanceexpressed at once anger, indignation, and despair; his gesture becamefurious, and his voice was lost in menaces and execrations. ALMEIDAbeheld him with an earnest yet steady countenance, till he vowed torevenge the indignity he had suffered, upon HAMET. At the name of HAMET, her fortitude forsook her; the pride of virtue gave way to the softnessof love; her cheeks became pale, her lips trembled, and taking hold ofthe robe of ALMORAN, she threw herself at his feet. His fury was itfirst suspended by hope and expectation; but when from her words, whichgrief and terror had rendered scarce articulate, he could learn onlythat she was pleading for HAMET, he burst from her in an extasy of rage, and forcing his robe from her hand, with a violence that dragged herafter it, he rushed out of the chamber, and left her prostrate upon theground. 

As he passed through the gallery with a hasty and disordered pace, hewas seen by OMAR; who knowing that he was returned from an interviewwith ALMEIDA, and conjecturing from his appearance what had happened, judged that he ought not to neglect this opportunity to warn him oncemore of the delusive phantoms, which, under the appearance of pleasure, were leading him to destruction: he, therefore, followed himunperceived, till he had reached the apartment in which he had been usedto retire alone, and heard again the loud and tumultuous exclamations, which were wrung, from his heart by the anguish of disappointment: 'Whathave I gained, ' said he, 'by absolute dominion! The slave who, secludedfrom the gales of life and from the light of heaven toils without hopein the darkness of the mine, riots in the delights of paradise comparedwith me. By the caprice of one woman, I am robbed not only of enjoymentbut of peace, and condemned for ever to the torment of unsatisfieddesire. '

OMAR, who was impatient to apprize him that he was not alone, and toprevent his disclosing sentiments which he wished to conceal, now threwhimself upon the ground at his feet. 'Presumptuous slave!' said ALMORAN, 'from whence, and wherefore art thou come?' 'I am come, ' said OMAR, 'totell thee that not the caprice of a woman, but the wishes of ALMORAN, have made ALMORAN wretched. ' The king, slung with the reproach, drewback, and with a furious look laid his hand upon his poignard; but wasimmediately restrained from drawing it, by his pride. 'I am come, ' saidOMAR, 'to repeat that truth, upon which, great as thou art, thy fate issuspended. Thy power extends not to the mind of another; exert it, therefore, upon thy own: suppress the wishes, which thou canst notfulfill, and secure the happiness that is within thy reach. '

ALMORAN, who could bear no longer to hear the precepts which hedisdained to practice, sternly commanded OMAR to depart: 'Be gone, ' saidhe, 'lest I crush thee like a noisome reptile, which men cannot butabhor, though it is too contemptible to be feared. ' 'I go, ' said OMAR, 'that my warning voice may yet again recall thee to the path of wisdomand of peace, if yet again I shall behold thee while it is to be found. '

CHAP. XIII. 

ALMORAN was now left alone; and throwing himself upon a sofa, he satsome time motionless and silent, as if all his faculties had beensuspended in the stupefaction of despair. He revolved in his mind thewishes that had been gratified, and the happiness of which he had beendisappointed: 'I desired, ' said he, 'the pomp and power of undivideddominion; and HAMET was driven from the throne which he shared with me, by a voice from heaven: I desired to break off his marriage withALMEIDA; and it was broken off by a prodigy, when no human power couldhave accomplished my desire. It was my wish also to have the person ofALMEIDA in my power, and this wish also has been gratified; yet I amstill wretched. But I am wretched, only because the means have not beenadequate to the end: what I have hitherto obtained, I have not desiredfor itself; and of that, for which I desired it, I am not possessed: Iam, therefore, still wretched, because I am weak. With the soul ofALMORAN, I should have the form of HAMET: then my wishes would indeed befilled; then would ALMEIDA bless me with consenting beauty, and thesplendor of my power should distinguish only the intervals of my love;my enjoyments would then be certain and permanent, neither blasted bydisappointment, nor withered by satiety. ' When he had uttered thesereflections with the utmost vehemence and agitation, his face was againobscured by gloom and despair; his posture was again fixed; and he wasfalling back into his former state of silent abstraction, when he wassuddenly roused by the appearance of the Genius, the sincerity of whosefriendship he began to distrust. 

'ALMORAN, ' said the Genius, 'if thou art not yet happy, know that mypowers are not yet exhausted: fear me not, but let thine ear beattentive to my voice. ' The Genius then stretched out his hand towardshim, in which there was an emerald of great lustre, cut into a figurethat had four and twenty sides, on each of which was engraven adifferent letter. 'Thou seest, ' said he, 'this talisman: on each side ofit is engraven one of those mysterious characters, of which are formedall the words of all the languages that are spoken by angels, genii, andmen. This shall enable thee to change thy figure: and what, under theform of ALMORAN, thou canst not accomplish; thou shalt still be able toeffect, if it can be effected by thee, in the form of any other. Pointonly to the letters that compose the name of him whose appearance thouwouldst assume, and it is done. Remember only, that upon him, whoseappearance thou shalt assume, thine shall be imprest, till thourestorest his own. Hide the charm in thy bosom, and avail thyself ofits power. ' ALMORAN received the talisman in a transport of gratitudeand joy, and the Genius immediately disappeared. 

The use of this talisman was so obvious, that it was impossible tooverlook it. ALMORAN instantly conceived the design with which it wasgiven, and determined instantly to put it in execution: 'I will now, 'said he, 'assume the figure of HAMET; and my love, in all its ardour, shall be returned by ALMEIDA. ' As his fancy kindled at the anticipationof his happiness, he stood musing in a pleasing suspense, and indulgedhimself in the contemplation of the several gradations, by which hewould ascend to the summit of his wishes. 

Just at this moment, Osmyn, whom he had commanded to attend him at thishour, approached his apartment: ALMORAN was roused by the sound of hisfoot, and supposed it to be OMAR, who had again intruded upon hisprivacy; he was enraged at the interruption which had broken a series ofimaginations so flattering and luxurious; he snatched out his poignard, and lifting up his arm for the stroke, hastily turned round to havestabbed him; but seeing Osmyn, he discovered his mistake just in time toprevent the blow. 

Osmyn, who was not conscious of any crime, nor indeed of any act thatcould have given occasion of offence; started back terrified andamazed, and stood trembling in suspense whether to remain or towithdraw. ALMORAN, in the mean time, sheathed the instrument of death, and bid him fear nothing, for he should not be hurt. He then turnedabout; and putting, his hand to his forehead, stood again, silent in amusing posture: he recollected, that if he assumed the figure of HAMET, it was necessary he should give orders for HAMET to be admitted toALMEIDA, as he would otherwise be excluded by the delegates of his ownauthority; turning, therefore, to Osmyn, 'Remember, ' said he, 'thatwhenever HAMET shall return, it is my command, that he be admitted toALMEIDA. '

Osmyn; who was pleased with an opportunity of recommending himself toALMORAN, by praising an act of generous virtue which he supposed him nowto exert in favour of his brother, received the command with a look, that expressed not only approbation but joy: 'Let the sword ofdestruction, ' said he, 'be the guard of the tyrant; the strength of mylord shall be the bonds of love: those, who honour thee as ALMORAN, shall rejoice in thee as the friend of HAMET. ' To ALMORAN, who wasconscious to no kindness for his brother, the praise of Osmyn was areproach: he was offended at the joy which he saw kindled in hiscountenance, by a command to shew favour to HAMET; and was fired withsudden rage at that condemnation of his real conduct, which was impliedby an encomium on the generosity of which he assumed the appearance fora malevolent and perfidious purpose: his brow was contracted, his lipquivered, and the hilt of his dagger was again grasped in his hand. Osmyn was again overwhelmed with terror and confusion; he had againoffended, but knew not his offence. In the mean time, ALMORANrecollecting that to express displeasure against Osmyn was to betray hisown secret, endeavoured to suppress his anger; but his anger wassucceeded by remorse, regret, and disappointment. The anguish of hismind broke out in imperfect murmurs: 'What I am, said, he, 'is, to thiswretch, the object not only of hatred but of scorn; and he commendsonly what I am not, in what to him I would seem to be. 

These sounds, which, tho' not articulate, were yet uttered with greatemotion, were still mistaken by Osmyn for the overflowings of capriciousand causeless anger: 'My life, ' says he to himself, 'is even nowsuspended in a doubtful balance. Whenever I approach this tyrant, Itread the borders of destruction: like a hood-winked wretch, who is leftto wander near the brink of a precipice, I know my danger; but which waysoever I turn, I know not whether I shall incur or avoid it. '

In these reflections, did the reign and the slave pass those moments inwhich the sovereign intended to render the slave subservient to hispleasure or his security, and the slave intended to express a zeal whichhe really felt, and a homage which his heart had already paid. Osmyn wasat length, however, dismissed with an assurance, that all was well; andALMORAN was again left to reflect with anguish upon the past, to regretthe present, and to anticipate the future with solicitude, anxiety, andperturbation. 

He was, however, determined to assume the figure of his brother, by thetalisman which had been put into his power by the Genius: but just as hewas about to form the spell, he recollected, that by the same act hewould impress his own likeness upon HAMET who would consequently beinvested with his power, and might use it to his destruction. This heldhim some time in suspense: but reflecting that HAMET might not, perhaps, be apprized of his advantage, till it was too late to improve it; thathe was now a fugitive, and probably alone, leaving Persia behind himwith all the speed he could make; and that, at the worst, if he shouldbe still near, if he should know the transformation as soon as it shouldbe made, and should instantly take the most effectual measures toimprove it; yet as he could dissolve the charm in a moment, whenever itshould be necessary for his safety, no formidable danger could beincurred by the experiment, to which he, therefore, proceeded withoutdelay. 

CHAP. XIV. 

In the mean time, HAMET, to whom his own safety was of no importance butfor the sake of ALMEIDA, resolved, if possible, to conceal himself nearthe city. Having, therefore, reached the confines of the desert, bywhich it was bounded on the east, he quitted his horse, and determinedto remain there till the multitude was dispersed; and the darkness ofthe evening might conceal his return, when in less than an hour he couldreach 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 travelthe desert seldom fail to enter the cave that winds its way under themountain, to drink of the water that issues there from a clear andcopious spring. 

He reviewed the scenes of the day that was now nearly passed, with amixture of astonishment and distress, to which no description can beequal The sudden and amazing change that a few hours had made in hissituation, appeared like a wild and distressful dream, from which healmost doubted whether he should not wake to the power and the felicitythat he had lost. He sat some time bewildered in the hurry andmultiplicity 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 of ALMEIDA alone? Dreadful vicissitude! I amnow an outcast, friendless and forlorn; without an associate, andwithout a dwelling: for me the cup of adversity overflows, and the lastdregs of sorrow have been wrung out for my portion: the powers not onlyof the earth, but of the air, have combined against me; and how can Istand alone before them? But is there no power that will interpose in mybehalf? If He, who is supreme, is good, I shall not perish. Butwherefore am I thus? Why should the desires of vice be accomplished bysuperior powers; and why should superior powers be permitted todisappoint the expectations of virtue? Yet let me not rashly questionthe ways of Him, in whose balance the world is weighed: by Him, everyevil is rendered subservient to good; and by His wisdom, the happinessof the whole is secured. Yet I am but a part only, and for a part only Ican feel. To me, what is that goodness of which I do not partake? In mycup 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 methe prospect of immortality. Shall not eternity atone for time?Eternity, to which the duration of ages is but as an atom to a world!Shall I not, when this momentary separation is past, again meet ALMEIDAto 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 sorcerycan 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 joyshe can bestow. '

With these reflections he soothed the anguish of his mind, till thedreadful moment arrived, in which the power of the talisman took place, and the figure of ALMORAN was changed into that of HAMET, and thefigure of HAMET into that of ALMORAN. 

At the moment of transformation, HAMET was seized with a sudden languor, and his faculties were suspended as by the stroke of death. When herecovered, his limbs still trembled, and his lips were parched withthirst: he rose, therefore, and entering the cavern, at the mouth ofwhich he had been sitting, he stooped over the well to drink; butglancing his eyes upon the water, he saw, with astonishment and horror, that it reflected, not his own countenance, but that of his brother. Hestarted back from the prodigy; and supporting himself against the sideof the rock, he stood some time like a statue, without the power ofrecollection: but at length the thought suddenly rushed into his mind, that the same sorcery which had suspended his marriage, and driven himfrom the throne was still practised against him; and that the change ofhis figure to that of ALMORAN, was the effect of ALMORAN'S havingassumed his likeness, to obtain, in this disguise, whatever ALMEIDAcould bestow. This thought, like a whirlwind of the desert, totallysubverted his mind; his fortitude was borne down, and his hopes wererooted up; no principles remained to regulate his conduct, but all wasphrensy, confusion, and despair. He rushed out of the cave with afurious and distracted look; and went in haste towards the city, withouthaving formed any design, or considered any consequence that mightfollow. 

The shadows of the mountains were now lengthened by the declining sun;and the approach of evening had invited OMAR to meditate in a grove, that was adjacent to the gardens of the palace. From this place he wasseen at some distance by HAMET, who came up to him with a hasty anddisordered pace; and OMAR drew back with a cold and distant reverence, which the power and the character of ALMORAN concurred to excite. HAMET, not reflecting upon the cause of this behaviour, was offended, andreproached him with the want of that friendship he had so oftenprofessed: the vehemence, of his expression and demeanor, suited wellwith the appearance of ALMORAN; and OMAR, as the best proof of thatfriendship which had been impeached, took this opportunity to repeat hisadmonitions in the behalf of HAMET: 'What ever evil, ' said he, 'thoucanst bring upon HAMET, will be doubled to thyself: to his virtues, thePower that fills infinitude is a friend, and he can be afflicted onlytill they are perfect; but thy sufferings will be the punishment ofvice, and as long as thou are vicious they must increase. 

HAMET, who instantly recollected for whom he was mistaken, and theanguish of whose mind was for a moment suspended by this testimony ofesteem and kindness, which could not possibly be feigned, and which waspaid him at the risque of life, when it could not be known that hereceived it; ran forward to embrace the hoary sage, who had been theguide of his youth, and cried out, in a voice that was broken bycontending passions, 'The face is the face of ALMORAN, but the heart isthe heart of HAMET. '

OMAR was struck dumb with astonishment; and HAMET, who was impatient tobe longer mistaken, related all the circumstances of his transformation, and reminded him of some particulars which could be known only tothemselves: 'Canst thou not yet believe, ' said he, 'that I am HAMET?when thou hast this day seen me banished from my kingdom; when thou hastnow met me a fugitive returning from the desert; and when I learnt fromthee, since the sun was risen which is not yet set, that more thanmortal powers were combined against me. ' 'I now believe, ' said OMAR, 'that thou, indeed, art HAMET. ' 'Stay me not then, ' said HAMET; 'butcome with me to revenge. ' 'Beware, ' said OMAR, 'lest thou endanger theloss of more than empire and ALMEIDA. ' 'If not to revenge, ' said HAMET, 'I may at least be permitted to punish. ' 'Thy mind, ' says OMAR, 'is nowin such a state, that to punish the crimes by which thou hast beenwronged, will dip thee in the guilt of blood. Why else are we forbiddento take vengeance for ourselves? and why is it reserved as theprerogative of the Most High? In Him, and in Him alone, it is goodnessguided 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 issweet; though his act may be just with respect to others, with respectto himself it is a deed of darkness, and abhorred by the Almighty. 'HAMET, who had stood abstracted in the contemplation of the new injuryhe had suffered, while OMAR was persuading him not to revenge it, started from his posture in all the wildness of distraction; andbursting away from OMAR, with an ardent and furious look hasted towardthe palace, and was soon out of sight. 

CHAP. XV. 

In the mean time, ALMORAN, after having effected the transformation, wasmet, as he was going to the apartment of ALMEIDA, by Osmyn. Osmyn hadalready experienced the misery of dependent greatness, that kept himcontinually under the eye of a capricious tyrant, whose temper wasvarious as the gales of summer, and whose anger was sudden as the boltof heaven; whose purpose and passions were dark and impetuous as themidnight storm, and at whose command death was inevitable as theapproach of time. When he saw ALMORAN, therefore, in the likeness ofHAMET, he felt a secret desire to apprize him of his situation, andoffer him his friendship. 

ALMORAN, who with the form assumed the manners of HAMET, addressed Osmynwith a mild though mournful countenance: 'At length, ' said he, 'the willof ALMORAN alone is law; does it permit me to hold a private rank inthis place, without molestation?' 'It permits, ' said Osmyn, 'yet more;he has commanded, that you should have admittance to ALMEIDA. ' ALMORAN, whose vanity betrayed him to flatter his own power in the person ofHAMET, replied with a smile: 'I know, that ALMORAN, who presides like aGod in silent and distant state, reveals the secrets of his will tothee; I know that thou art'--'I am, ' said Osmyn, 'of all thou seest, most wretched. ' At this declaration, ALMORAN turned short, and fixed hiseyes upon Osmyn with a look of surprize and anger: 'Does not the favourof ALMORAN, ' said he, 'whose smile is power, and wealth, and honour, shine upon thee?' 'My lord, ' said Osmyn, 'I know so well the severity ofthy virtue, that if I should, even for thy sake, become perfidious tothy brother'--ALMORAN, who was unable to preserve the character of HAMETwith propriety, interrupted him with a fierce and haughty tone: 'How!'said he, 'perfidious to my brother! to ALMORAN perfidious!'

Osmyn, who had now gone too far to recede, and who still saw before himthe figure of HAMET, proceeded in his purpose: 'I knew, ' said he, 'thatin thy judgment I should be condemned; and yet, the preservation of lifeis the strongest principle of nature, and the love of virtue is herproudest boast. ' 'Explain thyself, ' said ALMORAN, 'for I cannotcomprehend thee. ' 'I mean, ' said Osmyn, 'that he, whose life dependsupon the caprice of a tyrant, is like the wretch whose sentence isalready pronounced; and who, if the wind does but rush by his dungeon, imagines that it is the bow-string and the mute. ' 'Fear not, ' saidALMORAN, who now affected to be again calm; 'be still faithful, and thoushalt still be safe. ' 'Alas!' said Osmyn, there is no diligence, notoil, no faith, that can secure the slave from the sudden phrensy ofpassion, from, the causeless rage either of drunkenness or lust. I amthat slave; the slave of a tyrant whom I hate. ' The confusion of ALMORANwas now too great to be concealed, and he stood silent with rage, fear, and indignation. Osmyn, supposing that his wonder suspended his beliefof what he had heard, confirmed his declaration by an oath. 

Whoever thou art, to whose mind ALMORAN, the mighty and the proud, ispresent; before whom, the lord of absolute dominion stands trembling andrebuked; who seest the possessor of power by which nature is controuled, pale and silent with anguish and disappointment: if, in the fury of thywrath, thou hast aggravated weakness into guilt; if thou hast chilledthe glow of affection, when it flushed the cheek in thy presence, withthe frown of displeasure, or repressed the ardour of friendship withindifference or neglect; now, let thy heart smite thee: for, in thyfolly, thou hast cast away that gem, which is the light of life; whichpower 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 as HAMET, at once increased his misery andhis fears: 'O, ' said he, 'that the throne of Persia was thine! thenshould innocence enjoy her birth-right of peace, and hope should bidhonest industry look upward. There is not one to whom ALMORAN hasdelegated power, nor one on whom his transient favour has bestowed anygift, who does not already feel his heart throb with the pangs of bodingterror. Nor is there one who, if he did not fear the displeasure of theinvisible power by whom the throne has been given to thy brother, wouldnot 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 Iturn?' Osmyn, who mistook the cause of his distress, and supposed thathe deplored only his want of power to avail himself of the generaldisposition in his favour, endeavoured to fortify his mind againstdespair: 'Your state, ' said he, 'indeed is distressful, but nothopeless. ' The king who, though addressed as, HAMET, was still betrayedby his confusion to answer as ALMORAN, smote his breast, and replied inan agony, 'It is hopeless!' Osmyn remarked his emotion and despair, with, a concern and astonishment that ALMORAN observed, and at oncerecollected his situation. He endeavoured to retract such expressions oftrouble and despondency, as did not suit the character he hid assumed;and telling Osmyn that he thanked him for his friendship; and wouldimprove the advantages it offered him, he directed him to acquaint theeunuchs that they were to admit him to ALMEIDA. When he was left alone;his doubts and perplexity held him long in suspense; a thousandexpedients occurred to his mind by turns, and by turns were rejected. 

His first thought was to put Osmyn to death: but he considered; that bythis he would gain no advantage, as he would be in equal danger fromwhoever should succeed him: he considered also, that against Osmyn hewas upon his guard; and that he might at any time learn, from him, whatever design might be formed in favour of HAMET, by assuming HAMET'Sappearance: that he would thus be the confident of every secret, inwhich his own safety was concerned; and might disconcert the bestcontrived project at the very moment of its execution, when it would betoo late for other measures to be taken: he determined, therefore, tolet Osmyn live; at least, till it became more necessary to cut him off. Having in some degree soothed and fortified his mind by thesereflections, he entered the apartment of ALMEIDA. 

His hope was not founded upon a design to marry her under the appearanceof HAMET; for that would be impossible, as the ceremony must have beenperformed by the priests who supposed the marriage with HAMET to havebeen forbidden by a divine command; and who, therefore, would not haveconsented, even supposing they would otherwise have ventured, at therequest of HAMET, to perform a ceremony which they knew would bedispleasing to ALMORAN: but he hoped to take advantage of her tendernessfor his brother, and the particular circumstances of her situation, which made the solemnities of marriage impossible, to seduce her togratify his desires, without the sanction which alone rendered thegratification of them lawful: if he succeeded in this design, he hadreason to expert, either that his love would be extinguished byenjoyment; or that, if he should still desire to marry ALMEIDA, hemight, by disclosing to her the artifice by which he had effected hispurpose, prevail upon her to consent, as her connexion with HAMET, thechief obstacle to her marriage with him, would then be broken for ever;and as she might, perhaps, wish to sanctify the pleasure which she mightbe not unwilling to repeat, or at least to make that lawful which itwould not be in her power to prevent. 

In this disposition, and with this design, he was admitted to ALMEIDA;who, without suspicion of her danger, was exposed to the severest trial, in which every passion concurred to oppose her virtue: she was solicitedby all the powers of subtilty and desire, under the appearance of alover whose tenderness and fidelity had been long tried, and whosepassion she returned with equal constancy and ardour; and she was thussolicited, when the rites which alone could consecrate their union, wereimpossible, and were rendered impossible by the guilty designs of arival, in whose power she was, and from whom no other expedient offeredher a deliverance. Thus deceived and betrayed, she received him with anexcess of tenderness and joy, which flattered all his hopes, and for amoment suspended his misery. She enquired, with a fond and gentlesolicitude, by what means he had gained admittance, and how he hadprovided for his retreat. He received and returned her caresses with avehemence, in which, to less partial eyes, desire would have been moreapparent than love; and in the tumult of his passion, he almostneglected her enquiries: finding, however, that she would be answered, he told her, that being by the permission of ALMORAN admitted to everypart of the palace, except that of the women, he had found means tobribe the eunuch who kept the door; who was not in danger of detection, because ALMORAN, wearied with the tumult and fatigue of the day, hadretired to sleep, and given order to be called at a certain hour. Shethen complained of the felicitations to which she was exposed, expressedher dread of the consequences she had reason to expect from some suddensally of the tyrant's rage, and related with tears the brutal outrageshe had suffered when he last left her. 'Though I abhorred him, ' saidshe, 'I yet kneeled before him for thee. Let me bend in reverence tothat Power, at whose look the whirlwinds are silent, and the seas arecalm, that his fury has hitherto been restrained from hurting thee!'

At these words, the face of ALMORAN was again covered with the blushesof confusion: to be still beloved only as HAMET, and as ALMORAN to bestill hated; to be thus reproached without anger, and wounded by thosewho knew not that they struck him; was a species of misery peculiar tohimself, and had been incurred only by the acquisition of new powers, which he had requested and received as necessary to obtain thatfelicity, which the parsimony of nature had placed beyond his reach. Hisemotions, however, as by ALMEIDA they were supposed to be the emotionsof HAMET, she imputed to a different cause: 'As Heaven, ' says she, 'haspreserved thee from death; so has it, for thy sake, preserved me fromviolation. ' ALMORAN, whose passion had in this interval again surmountedhis remorse, gazed eagerly upon her, and catching her to his bosom; 'Letus at least, ' says he, 'secure the happiness that is now offered; letnot these inestimable moments pass by us unimproved; but to shew that wedeserve them, let them be devoted to love. ' 'Let us then, ' said ALMEIDA, '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 the flight of ALMEIDA will at once be traced to him by whom I wasadmitted, and I shall thus retaliate his friendship with destruction. ''Let him then, ' said ALMEIDA, 'be the partner of our flight. ' 'Urge itnot now, ' said ALMORAN; 'but trust to my prudence and my love, to selectsome hour that will be more favourable to our purpose. And yet, ' saidhe, 'even then, we shall, as now, sigh in vain for the completion of ourwishes: by whom shall our hands be joined, when in the opinion of thepriests it has been forbidden from above?' 'Save thyself then, ' saidALMEIDA, and leave me to my fate. ' 'Not so, ' said ALMORAN. 'What else, 'replied ALMEIDA, 'is in our power?' 'It is in our power, ' said ALMORAN, 'to seize that joy, to which a public form can give us no new claim; forthe 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; butshe 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 of HAMET!' 'O! yes, ' saidALMORAN, 'what other voice should call thee to cancel at once the wrongsof HAMET and ALMEIDA; to secure the treasures of thy love from the handof the robber; to hide, the joys, which if now we lose we may lose forever, in the sacred and inviolable stores of the past, and place thembeyond the power not of ALMORAN only but of fate?' With this wildeffusion of desire, he caught her again to his breast, and finding noresistance his heart exulted in his success; but the next moment, to thetotal disappointment of his hopes, he perceived that she had fainted inhis arms. When she recovered, she once more disengaged herself from him, and turning away her face, she burst into tears. When her voice could beheard, 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 beendeserved by ALMEIDA of HAMET? You was my only solace in distress; andwhen the tears have stolen from my eyes in silence and in solitude, Ithought on thee; I thought upon the chaste ardour of thy sacredfriendship, which was softened, refined, and exalted into love. This wasmy hoarded treasure; and the thoughts of possessing this; soothed all myanguish with a miser's happiness, who, blest in the consciousness ofhidden wealth, despises cold and hunger, and rejoices in the midst ofall 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!' said ALMEIDA, 'can he afford me refuge from mysorrows, who, for the guilty pleasures of a transient moment, wouldforever sully the purity of my mind, and aggravate misfortune by theconsciousness of guilt?'

As ALMORAN now perceived, that it was impossible, by any importunity, toinduce her to violate her principles; he had nothing more to attempt, but to subvert them. 'When, ' said he, 'shall ALMEIDA awake, and thesedreams of folly and superstition vanish? That only is virtue, by whichhappiness is produced; and whatever produces happiness, is thereforevirtue; and the forms, and words and rites, which priests have pretendedto be required by Heaven, are the fraudful arts only by which theygovern mankind. '

ALMEIDA, by this impious insult, was roused from grief to indignation:'As thou hast now dared, ' said she, 'to deride the laws, which thouwouldst first have broken; so hast thou broken for ever the tenderbonds, by which my soul was united to thine. Such as I fondly believedthee, thou art not; and what thou art, I have never loved. I have loveda delusive phantom only, which, while I strove to grasp it, has vanishedfrom me. ' ALMORAN attempted to reply; but on such a subject, neither hervirtue nor her wisdom would permit debate. 'That prodigy, ' said she, 'which I thought was the sleight of cunning, or the work of sorcery, Inow revere as the voice of Heaven; which, as it knew thy heart, has inmercy saved me from thy arms. To the will of Heaven shall my will beobedient; and my voice also shall pronounce, to ALMORAN ALMEIDA. '

ALMORAN, whose whole soul was now suspended in attention, conceived newhopes of success; and foresaw the certain accomplishment of his purpose, though by an effect directly contrary to that which he had laboured toproduce. Thus to have incurred the hatred of ALMEIDA in the form ofHAMET, was more fortunate than to have taken advantage of her love; thepath that led to his wishes was now clear and open; and his marriagewith ALMEIDA in his own person, waited only till he could resume it. He, therefore, instead of soothing, provoked her resentment: 'If thou hastloved a phantom, ' said he, 'which existed only in imagination; on such aphantom my love also has been fixed: thou hast, indeed, only the form ofwhat I called ALMEIDA; my love thou hast rejected, because thou hastnever loved; the object of thy passion was not HAMET, but a throne; andthou hast made the observance of rituals, in which folly only cansuppose there is good or ill, a pretence to violate thy faith, that thoumayst still gratify thy ambition. '

To this injurious reproach, ALMEIDA made no reply; and ALMORANimmediately quitted her apartment, that he might reassume his ownfigure, take advantage of the disposition which, under the appearanceof HAMET, he had produced in favour of himself: But Osmyn, who supposinghim to be HAMET, had intercepted and detained him as he was going toALMEIDA, now intercepted him a second time at his return, having placedhimself 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 of ALMORAN, for which, imagining him to be HAMET, he could not account; and which seemed moreextraordinary upon a review, than when it happened; he, therefore, againentered into conversation with him, in which he farther disclosed hissentiments and designs. ALMORAN, notwithstanding the impatience naturalto his temper and situation, was thus long detained listening to Osmyn, by the united influence of his curiosity and his fears; his enquiriesstill alarmed him with new terrors, by discovering new objects ofdistrust, and new instances of disaffection: still, however, heresolved, not yet to remove Osmyn from his post, that he might give noalarm by any appearance of suspicion, and consequently learn with moreease; and detect with more certainty, any project that might be formedagainst him. 

CHAP. XVI. 

ALMEIDA, as soon as she was left alone, began to review the scene thathad just past; and was every moment affected with new wonder, grief, andresentment. She now deplored her own misfortune; and now conceived adesign to punish the author of it, from whose face she supposed the handof adversity had torn the mask under which he had deceived her: itappeared to her very easy, to take a severe revenge upon HAMET for theindignity which she supposed he had offered her, by complaining of itto ALMORAN; and telling him, that he had gained admittance to her bybribing the eunuch who kept the door. The thought of thus giving him up, was one moment rejected, as arising from a vindictive spirit; and thenext indulged, as an act of justice to ALMORAN, and a punishment due tothe hypocrisy of HAMET: to the first she inclined, when her grief, whichwas still mingled with a tender remembrance of the man she loved, waspredominant; and to the last, when her grief gave way to indignation. 

Thus are we inclined to consider the same action, either as a virtue, ora vice, by the influence of different passions, which prompt us eitherto perform or to avoid it. ALMEIDA, from deliberating whether sheshould accuse HAMET to ALMORAN, or conceal his fault, was led toconsider what punishment he would either incur or escape in consequenceof her determination; and the images that rushed into her mind, themoment this became the object of her thoughts, at once determined her tobe silent: 'Could I bear to see, ' said she, 'that hand, which has sooften trembled with delight when it enfolded mine, convulsed and black!those eyes, that as often as they gazed upon me were dissolved in tearsof tenderness and love, start from the sockets! and those lips thatbreathed the softest sighs of elegant desire, distorted and gasping inthe convulsions of death!'

From this image, her mind recoiled in an agony of terror and pity; herheart 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 of ALMORAN was stillimpressed, had reached the palace. He went instantly towards theapartment of the women. Instead of that chearful alacrity, that mixtureof zeal and reverence and affection, which his eye had been used to findwhere-ever it was turned, he now observed confusion, anxiety and terror;whoever he met, made haste to prostrate themselves before him, andfeared to look up till he was past. He went on, however, with a hastypace; and coming up to the eunuch's guard, he said with an impatienttone; 'To ALMEIDA. ' The slave immediately made way before him, andconducted him to the door of the apartment, which he would not otherwisehave been able to find, and for which he could not directly enquire. 

When he entered, his countenance expressed all the passions that hissituation had roused in his mind. He first looked sternly round him, tosee whether ALMORAN was not present; and then fetching a deep sigh heturned his eyes, with a look of mournful tenderness, upon ALMEIDA. Hisfirst view was to discover, whether ALMORAN had already supplanted him;and for this purpose he collected the whole strength of his mind: heconsidered that he appeared now, not as HAMET, but as ALMORAN; and thathe was to question ALMEIDA concerning ALMORAN, while she had mistakenhim for HAMET; he was therefore to maintain the character, at whateverexpence, till his doubts were resolved, and his fears either removed orconfirmed: he was so firmly persuaded, that ALMORAN had been therebefore him, that he did not ask the question, but supposed the fact; herestrained alike both his tenderness and his fears; and lookingearnestly upon ALMEIDA, who had risen up in his presence with blushesand confusion, 'To me, ' says he, 'is ALMEIDA still cold? and has shelavished all her love upon HAMET?'

At the name of HAMET, the blushes and confusion of ALMEIDA increased:her mind was still full of the images, which had risen from the thoughtof what HAMET might suffer, if ALMORAN should know that he had been withher; and though she feared that their interview was discovered, yet shehoped it might be only suspected, and in that case the removal orconfirmation of the suspicions, on which the fate of HAMET depended, would devolve upon her. 

In this situation, she, who a few moments before doubted, whether sheshould not voluntarily give him up, when nothing more was necessary forhis safety than to be silent; now determined, with whatever reluctance, to secure him, though it could not he done without dissimulation, andthough it was probable that in this dissimulation she would be detected. Instead, therefore, of answering the question, she repeated it: 'On whomsaid my lord, on HAMET?' HAMET, whose suspicions were increased by theevasion, replied with great emotion, 'Aye, on HAMET; did he not thismoment leave you?' 'Leave me this moment?' said ALMEIDA, with yetgreater confusion, and deeper blushes. HAMET, in the impatience of hisjealousy, concluded, that the passions which he saw expressed in hercountenance, and which arose from the struggle between her regard totruth and her tenderness for HAMET, proceeded from the consciousness ofwhat he had most reason to dread, and she to conceal, a breach ofvirtue, to which she had been betrayed by his own appearance united withthe vices of his brother: he, therefore, drew back from her with a lookof inexpressible anguish, and stood some time silent. She observed, thatin his countenance there was more expression of trouble, than rage; she, therefore, hoped to divert him from persuing his enquiries, by at onceremoving his jealousy; which she supposed would be at an end, as soon asshe should disclose the resolution she had taken in his favour. Addressing him, therefore, as ALMORAN, with a voice which though it wasgentle and soothing, was yet mournful and tremulous; 'Do not turn fromme, ' said she, with those unfriendly and frowning looks; give me nowthat love which so lately you offered, and with all the future I willatone the past. '

Upon HAMET, whose heart involuntarily answered to the voice of ALMEIDA, these words had irresistible and instantaneous force; but recollecting, in a moment, whose form he bore, and to whom they were addressed, theystruck him with new astonishment, and increased the torments of hismind. Supposing what he at first feared had happened, and that ALMORANhad seduced her as HAMET; he could not account for her now addressinghim, as ALMORAN, with words of favour and compliance: he, therefore, renewed his enquiries concerning himself, with apprehensions of adifferent kind. She, who was still solicitous to put an end to theenquiry, as well for the sake of HAMET, as to prevent her ownembarrassment, replied with a sigh, 'Let not thy peace be interrupted byone thought of HAMET; for of HAMET ALMEIDA shall think no more. ' HAMET, who, though he had fortified himself against whatever might havehappened to her person, could not bear the alienation of her mind, criedour, 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, 'Is ALMORAN thenoffended, that ALMEIDA mould think of HAMET no more?' HAMET, being thusaddressed by the name of his brother, again recollected his situation;and now first conceived the idea, that the alteration of ALMEIDA'Ssentiments with respect to himself, might be the effect of some violenceoffered her by ALMORAN in his likeness; he, therefore, recurred to hisfirst purpose, and determined, by a direct enquiry, to discover whethershe had seen him under that appearance. This enquiry he urged with theutmost solemnity and ardour, in terms suitable to his present appearanceand situation: 'Tell me, ' said he, 'have these doors been open to HAMET?Has he obtained possession of that treasure, which, by the voice ofHeaven, has been allotted to me?'

To this double question, ALMEIDA answered by a single negative; and heranswer, therefore, was both false and true: it was true that her personwas still inviolate, and it was true also that HAMET had not beenadmitted to her; yet her denial of it was false, for she believed thecontrary; ALMORAN only had been admitted, but she had received him ashis brother. HAMET, however, was satisfied with the answer, and did notdiscover its fallacy. He looked up to Heaven, with an expression ofgratitude and joy; and then turning to ALMEIDA, 'Swear then, ' said he, 'that thou hast granted to HAMET, no pledge of thy love which should bereserved for me. ' ALMEIDA, who now thought nothing more than theasseveration necessary to quiet his mind, immediately complied: 'Iswear, ' said she, 'that to HAMET I have given nothing, which thouwouldst wish me to with-hold: the power that has devoted my person tothee, has disunited my heart from HAMET, whom I renounce in thy presencefor ever. '

HAMET, whose fortitude and recollection were again overborne, was throwninto an agitation of mind, which discovered itself by looks and gesturesvery different from those which ALMEIDA had expected, and overwhelmedher with new confusion and disappointment: that he, who had so latelysolicited her love with all the vehemence of a desire impatient to begratified, should now receive a declaration that she was ready tocomply with marks of distress and anger, was a mystery which she couldnot solve. In the mean time, the struggle in his breast became everymoment more violent: 'Where then, ' said he, 'is the constancy which youvowed to HAMET; and for what instance of his love is he now forsaken?'

ALMEIDA was now more embarrassed than before; she felt all the force ofthe reproof, supposing it to have been given by ALMORAN; and she couldbe justified only by relating the particular, which at the expence ofher sincerity she had determined to conceal. ALMORAN was now exalted inher opinion, while his form was animated by the spirit of HAMET; as muchas HAMET had been degraded, while his form was animated by the spiritof ALMORAN. In his resentment of her perfidy to his rival, though itfavoured his fondest and most ardent wishes, there was an abhorrence ofvice, and a generosity of mind, which she supposed to have beenincompatible with his character. To his reproach, she could reply onlyby complaint; and could no otherwise evade his question, than byobserving the inconsistency of his own behaviour: 'Your words, ' saidshe, 'are daggers to my heart. You condemn me for a compliance with yourown wishes; and for obedience to that voice, which you supposed to haverevealed the will of Heaven. Has the caprice of desire already wanderedto a new object? and do you now seek a pretence to refuse, when it isfreely offered, what so lately you would have taken by force?'

HAMET, who was now fired with resentment against ALMEIDA, whom yet hecould not behold without desire; and who, at the same moment, wasimpatient to revenge his wrongs upon ALMORAN; was suddenly prompted tosatisfy all his passions, by taking advantage of the wiles of ALMORAN, and the perfidy of ALMEIDA, to defeat the one and to punish the other. It was now in his power instantly to consummate his marriage, as apriest might be procured without a moment's delay, and as ALMEIDA'Sconsent was already given; he would then obtain the possession of herperson, by the very act in which she perfidiously resigned it to hisrival; to whom he would then leave the beauties he had alreadypossessed, and cast from him in disdain, as united with a mind that hecould never love. As his imagination was fired with the first conceptionof this design, he caught her to his breast with a fury, in which allthe passions in all their rage were at once concentered: 'Let thepriest, ' said he, 'instantly unite us. Let us comprize, in one moment, in this instant, NOW, our whole of being, and exclude alike the futureand the past!' Then grasping her still in his arms, he looked up toheaven: 'Ye powers, ' said he, 'invisible but yet present, who mould mychanging and unresisting form; prolong, but for one hour, thatmysterious charm, that is now upon me, and I will be ever aftersubservient to your will!'

ALMEIDA, who was terrified at the furious ardor of this unintelligibleaddress, shrunk from his embrace, pale and trembling, without power toreply. HAMET gazed tenderly upon her; and recollecting the purity andtenderness with which he had loved her, his virtues suddenly recoveredtheir force; he dismissed her from his embrace; and turning from her, hedropped in silence the tear that started to his eye, and expressed, in alow and faultering voice, the thoughts that rushed upon his mind: 'No, 'said he; HAMET shall still disdain the joy, which is at once sordid andtransient: in the breast of HAMET, lust shall not be the pander ofrevenge. Shall I, who have languished for the pure delight which canarise only from the interchange of soul with soul, and is endeared bymutual confidence and complacency; shall I snatch under this disguise, which belies my features and degrades my virtue, a casual possession offaithless beauty, which I despise and hate? Let this be the portion ofthose, that hate me without a cause; but let this be far from me!' Atthis thought, he felt a sudden elation of mind; and the consciousdignity of virtue, that in such a conflict was victorious, rendered him, in this glorious moment, superior to misfortune: his gesture becamecalm, and his countenance sedate; he considered the wrongs he suffered, not as a sufferer, but as a judge; and he determined at once to discoverhimself to ALMEIDA, and to reproach her with her crime. He remarked herconfusion without pity, as the effect not of grief but of guilt; andfixing his eyes upon her, with the calm severity of a superior andoffended being, 'Such, ' said he, 'is the benevolence of the Almighty tothe 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, ' said HAMET, are full of wonder; but as yet thy wonder has no cause, in comparisonof that which shall be revealed. Thou knowest the prodigy, which solately parted HAMET and ALMEIDA: I am that HAMET, thou art thatALMEIDA. ' ALMEIDA would now have interrupted him; but HAMET raised hisvoice, and demanded to be heard: 'At that moment, ' said he, 'wretched asI am, the child of error and disobedience, my heart repined in secret atthe destiny which had been written upon my head; for I then thought theefaithful and constant: but if our hands had been then united, I shouldhave been more wretched than I am; for I now know that thou art fickleand false. To know thee, though it has pierced my soul with sorrow, hasyet healed the wound which was inflicted when I lost thee: and though Iam now compelled to wear the form of ALMORAN, whose vices are thismoment disgracing mine, yet in the balance I shall be weighed as HAMET, 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 theconsequence of what she heard, whether it was false or true, was yetimpatient to confute or confirm it; and as soon as she had recovered herspeech, urged him for some token of the prodigy he asserted, which hemight easily have given, by relating any of the incidents whichthemselves only could know. But just at this moment, ALMORAN, having atlast disengaged himself from Osmyn, by whom he had been long detained, resumed his own figure: and while the eyes of ALMEIDA were fixed uponHAMET, his powers were suddenly taken from him, and restored in aninstant; and she beheld the features of ALMORAN vanish, and gazed withastonishment upon his own: 'Thy features change!' said she, 'and thouindeed art HAMET. ' 'The sudden trance, ' said he, 'has restored me tomyself; and from my wrongs where shalt thou be hidden?' This reproachwas 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 thetenderness of his love: while he beheld her distress, and pressed her bythe embrace that sustained her to his bosom, he forgot every injurywhich he supposed she had done him; and perceived her recover with apleasure, 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 oncethe whole complication of events that had deceived and distressed her;and nothing more was now necessary, than to explain them to HAMET;which, however, she could not do, without discovering the insincerity ofher answers to the enquiries which he had made, while she mistook himfor his brother: 'If in my heart, ' says she, 'thou hast found anyvirtue, let it incline thee to pity the vice that is mingled with it: bythe 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 possessedthy form, was with me: he prophaned thy love, by attempts to supplant myvirtue; I resisted his importunity, and escaped perdition; but the guiltof ALMORAN drew my resentment upon HAMET. I thought the vices which, under thy form, I discovered in his bosom, were thine; and in theanguish of grief, indignation, and disappointment, my heart renouncedthee: yet, as I could not give thee up to death, I could not discover toALMORAN the attempt which I imputed to thee; when you questioned me, therefore, as ALMORAN, I was betrayed to dissimulation, by thetenderness which still melted my heart for HAMET. ' 'I believe thee, 'said HAMET, catching her in a transport to his breast: 'I love thee forthy virtue; and may the pure and exalted beings, who are superior to thepassions that now throb in my heart, forgive me, if I love thee also forthy fault. Yet, let the danger to which it betrayed thee, teach us stillto walk in the strait path, and commit the keeping of our peace to theAlmighty; for he that wanders in the maze of falsehood, shall pass bythe good that he would meet, and shall meet the evil that he would shun. I also was tempted; but I was strengthened to resist: if I had used thepower, which I derived from the arts that have been practised againstme, to return evil for evil; if I had not disdained a secret andunavowed revenge, and the unhallowed pleasures of a brutal appetite; Imight have possessed thee in the form of ALMORAN, and have wrongedirreparably myself and thee: for how could I have been admitted, asHAMET, to the beauties which I had enjoyed as ALMORAN? and how couldstthou have given, to ALMORAN, what in reality had been appropriated byHAMET?'

CHAP. XVII. 

But while ALMEIDA and HAMET were thus congratulating each other upon theevils 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 hadexceeded his hopes, and who supposed the possession of ALMEIDA beforethe end of the next hour, was as certain as that the next hour wouldarrive, suddenly entered the apartment; but upon discovering HAMET, hestarted back astonished and disappointed. HAMET stood unmoved; andregarded him with a fixed and steady look, that at once reproached andconfounded him. 'What treachery, ' said ALMORAN, 'has been practisedagainst me? What has brought thee to this place; and how hast thougained admittance?' 'Against thy peace, ' said HAMET, 'no treachery hasbeen practised, but by thyself. By those arts in which thy vices haveemployed the powers of darkness, I have been brought hither; and bythose arts I have gained admittance: thy form which they have imposedupon me, was my passport; and by the restoration of my own, I havedetected and disappointed the fraud, which the double change wasproduced to execute. ALMEIDA, whom, as HAMET, thou couldst teach tohate thee, it is now impossible that, as ALMORAN, thou shouldst teach tolove. '

ALMEIDA, who perceived the storm to be gathering which the next momentwould burst upon the head of HAMET, interposed between them, andaddressed each of them by turns; urging HAMET to be silent, andconjuring ALMORAN to be merciful. ALMORAN, however, without regardingALMEIDA, or making any reply to HAMET, struck the ground with his foot, and the messengers of death, to whom the signal was familiar, appearedat the door. ALMORAN then commanded them to seize his brother, with acountenance pale and livid, and a voice that was broken by rage. HAMETwas still unmoved; but ALMEIDA threw herself at the feet of ALMORAN, andembracing his knees was about to speak, but he broke from her withsudden 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: andwhen death at length shall disappoint my vengeance, his mangled limbsshall be cast out unburied, to feed the beasts of the desert and thefowls of heaven. ' During this menace, ALMEIDA sunk down without signs oflife; and HAMET struggling in vain for liberty to raise her from theground, she was carried off by some women who were called to herassistance. 

In this awful crisis, HAMET, who felt his own fortitude give way, lookedup, and though he conceived no words, a prayer ascended from his heartto heaven, and was accepted by Him, to whom our thoughts are known whilethey are yet afar off. For HAMET, the fountain of strength was openedfrom above; his eye sparkled with confidence, and his breast was dilatedby hope. He commanded the guard that were leading him away to stop, andthey implicitly obeyed; he then stretched out his hand towards ALMORAN, 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 ofall thy guilt, but accumulated misery? What joy hast thou derived fromundivided empire? what joy from the prohibition of my marriage withALMEIDA? what good from that power, which some evil daemon has added tothy own? what, at this moment, is thy portion, but rage and anguish, disappointment, and despair? Even I, whom thou seest the captive of thypower, whom thou hast wronged of empire, and yet more of love; even I amhappy, in comparison of thee. I know that my sufferings, howevermultiplied, are short, for they shall end with life, and no life islong: then shall the everlasting ages commence; and through everlastingages thy sufferings shall increase. The moment is now near, when thoushalt tread that line which alone is the path to heaven, the narrowpath that is stretched over the pit, which smokes for ever, and forever! When thine aking eye shall look forward to the end that is fardistant, and when behind thou shalt find no retreat; when thy stepsshall faulter, and thou shalt tremble at the depth beneath, whichthought itself is not able to fathom; then shall the angel ofdistribution lift his inexorable hand against thee: from the irremeableway 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 of HAMET struck ALMORAN with terror, and over-awed him byan influence which he could not surmount; HAMET was forced from hispresence, before any other orders had been given about him, than wereimplied in the menace that was addressed to ALMEIDA: no violence, therefore, was yet offered him; but he was secured, till the king'spleasure should be known, in a dungeon not far from the palace, to whichhe was conducted by a subterraneous passage; and the door being closedupon him, he was left in silence, darkness, and solitude, such as may beimagined before the voice of the Almighty produced light and life. 

When ALMORAN was sufficiently recollected to consider his situation, hedespaired of prevailing upon ALMEIDA to gratify his wishes, till herattachment to HAMET was irreparably broken; and he, therefore, resolvedto put him to death. With this view, he repeated the signal, whichconvened the ministers of death to his presence; but the sound was lostin a peal of thunder that instantly followed it, and the Genius, fromwhom he received the talisman, again stood before him. 

'ALMORAN, ' said the Genius, 'I am now compelled into thy presence by thecommand of a superior power; whom, if I should dare to disobey, theenergy of his will might drive me, in a moment, beyond the limits ofnature and the reach of thought, to spend eternity alone, withoutcomfort, and without hope. ' 'And what, ' said ALMORAN, 'is the will ofthis mighty and tremendous being?' 'His will, ' said the Genius, 'I willreveal to thee. Hitherto, thou hast been enabled to lift the rod ofadversity against thy brother, by powers which nature has not entrustedto 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 prevailedagainst him by thy own power, thy own power would not have beenrestrained: to afflict him thou art still free; but thou art notpermitted to destroy. At the moment, in which thou shalt conceive athought to cut him off by violence, the punishment of thy disobedienceshall commence, and the pangs of death shall be upon thee. ' 'If then, 'said ALMORAN, 'this awful power is the friend of HAMET; what yetremains, in the stores of thy wisdom, for me? 'Till he dies, I am atonce precluded from peace, and safety, and enjoyment. ' 'Look up, ' saidthe Genius, 'for the iron hand of despair is not yet upon thee. Thoucanst be happy, only by his death; and his life thou art forbidden totake away: yet mayst thou still arm him against himself; and if he diesby his own hand, thy wishes will be full. ' 'O name, ' said ALMORAN, 'butthe means, and it shall this moment be accomplished!' 'Select, ' said theGenius, 'some friend--'

At the name of friend, ALMORAN started and looked round in despair. Herecollected the perfidy of Osmyn; and he suspected that, from the samecause, all were perfidious: 'While HAMET has yet life, ' said he, 'Ifear 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 thouwilt joyfully confide, may be found. Let him secretly obtain admittanceto HAMET, as if by stealth; let him profess an abhorrence of thy reign, and compassion for his misfortunes; let him pretend that the rack iseven now preparing for him; that death is inevitable, but that tormentmay be avoided: let him then give him a poignard, as the instrument ofdeliverance; and, perhaps, his own hand may strike the blow, that shallgive thee peace. ' 'But who, ' said ALMORAN, shall go upon this importanterrand?' 'Who, ' replied the Genius, but thyself? Hast thou not thepower to assume the form of whomsoever thou wouldst have sent?' 'I wouldhave sent Osmyn, ' said ALMORAN, 'but that I know him to be a traitor. ''Let the form of Osmyn then, ' said the Genius, 'be thine. The shadows ofthe evening have now stretched themselves upon the earth: command Osmynto attend thee alone in the grove, where Solyman, thy father, was usedto meditate by night; and when thy form shall be impressed upon him, Iwill there seal his eyes in sleep, till the charm shall be broken; soshall no evil be attempted against thee, and the transformation shall beknown only to thyself. '

ALMORAN, whose breast was again illuminated by hope, was about toexpress his gratitude and joy; but the Genius suddenly disappeared. Hebegan, therefore, immediately to follow the instructions that he hadreceived: he commanded Osmyn to attend him in the grove, and forbadevery other to approach; by the power of the talisman he assumed hisappearance, and saw him sink down in the supernatural slumber beforehim: he then quitted the place, and prepared to visit HAMET in theprison. 

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 hadproposed a revolt to HAMET, in which Osmyn had refused to concur, heknew that his life was now in his power; he dreaded lest, for someslight offence, or in some fit of causeless displeasure, he shoulddisclose the secret to ALMORAN, who would then certainly condemn him todeath. To secure this fatal secret, and put an end to his inquietude, heresolved, from the moment that ALMORAN was 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 toconceive against that merit, which they cannot but envy without spiritto emulate, and by which they feel themselves disgraced without aneffort to acquire equal honour; it was confirmed also by the hope whichCaled had conceived, that, upon the death of Osmyn, he should succeed tohis post: his apprehensions likewise were increased, by the gloom whichhe remarked in the countenance of Osmyn; and which not knowing that itarose from fear, he imputed to jealousy and malevolence. 

When ALMORAN, who had now assumed the appearance of Osmyn, had passedthe subterranean avenue to the dungeon in which HAMET was confined, hewas met by Caled; of whom he demanded admittance to the prince, andproduced his own signet, as a testimony that he came with the authorityof the king. As it was Caled's interest to secure the favour of Osmyntill an opportunity should offer to cut him off, he received him withevery possible mark of respect and reverence; and when he was gone intothe dungeon, he commanded a beverage to be prepared for him against heshould return, in which such spices were infused, as might expel themalignity which, in that place, might be received with the breath oflife; and taking himself the key of the prison, he waited at the door. 

When ALMORAN entered the dungeon, with a lamp which he had received fromCaled, he found HAMET sitting upon the ground: his countenance wasimpressed with the characters of grief; but it retained no marks eitherof anger or fear. When he looked up, and saw the features of Osmyn, hejudged that the mutes were behind him; and, therefore, rose up, toprepare himself for death. ALMORAN beheld his calmness and fortitudewith the involuntary praise of admiration; yet persisted in his purposewithout remorse. 'I am come, ' said he, by the command of ALMORAN, todenounce that fate, the bitterness of which I will enable thee toavoid. ' 'And what is there, ' said HAMET, 'in my fortunes, that hasprompted thee to the danger of this attempt?' 'The utmost that I cangive thee, ' said ALMORAN, 'I can give thee without danger to myself: butthough I have been placed, by the hand of fortune, near the person ofthe tyrant, yet has my heart in secret been thy friend. If I am themessenger of evil, impute it to him only by whom it is devised. The rackis now preparing to receive thee; and every art of ingenious crueltywill be exhausted to protract and to increase the agonies of death. ''And what, ' said HAMET, 'can thy friendship offer me?' 'I can offerthee, ' said ALMORAN, 'that which will at once dismiss thee to thoseregions, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary rest forever. ' He then produced the poignard from his bosom; and presenting itto HAMET, 'Take this, ' said he, 'and sleep in peace. '

HAMET, whose heart was touched with sudden joy at the sight of sounexpected a remedy for every evil, did not immediately reflect, that hewas not at liberty to apply it: he snatched it in a transport from thehand of ALMORAN, and expressed his sense of the obligation by claspinghim in his arms, and shedding the tears of gratitude in his breast. 'Bequick, ' said ALMORAN: this moment I must leave thee; and in the next, perhaps, the messengers of destruction may bind thee to the rack. 'Iwill be quick, ' said HAMET; 'and the sigh that shall last linger upon mylips, shall bless thee. ' They then bid each other farewel: ALMORANretired from the dungeon, and the door was again closed upon HAMET. 

Caled, who waited at the door till the supposed Osmyn should return, presented him with the beverage which he had prepared, of which herecounted the virtues; and ALMORAN received it with pleasure, and havingeagerly drank it off, returned to the palace. As soon as he was alone, he resumed his own figure, and fate, with a confident and impatientexpectation, that in a short time a messenger would be dispatched toacquaint him with the death of HAMET. HAMET, in the mean time, havinggrasped 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 onlyobject of my hope!' But at these words, his mind instantly took thealarm: 'Let me reflect, ' said he, 'a moment: from what can I derive hopein death?--from that patient and persevering virtue, and from thatalone, 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 handconsigns 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 mylife and hope together?' With this reflection he threw the dagger fromhim; and stretching himself again upon the ground, resigned himself tothe disposal of the Father of man, most Merciful and Almighty. 

ALMORAN, who had now resolved to send for the intelligence which helonged to hear, was dispatching a messenger to the prison, when he wastold that Caled desired admittance to his presence. At the name ofCaled, he started up in an extasy of joy; and not doubting but thatHAMET was dead, he ordered him to be instantly admitted. When he camein, ALMORAN made no enquiry about HAMET, because he would not appear toexpect the event, which yet he supposed he had brought about; he, therefore, asked him only upon what business he came. 'I come, mylord, ' said he, 'to apprize thee of the treachery of Osmyn. ' 'I know, 'said ALMORAN, 'that Osmyn is a traitor; but of what dost thou accusehim? '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 royalsignet demanded admittance. As the command which I received, when he wasdelivered to my custody, was absolute, that no foot should enter, Idoubted whether the token had not been obtained, by fraud, for someother purpose; yet, as he required admittance only, I complied: but thatif any treachery had been contrived, I might detect it; and that noartifice might be practised to favour an escape; I waited myself at thedoor, and listening to their discourse I overheard the treason that Isuspected. ' 'What then, ' said ALMORAN, 'didst thou hear?' 'A part ofwhat was said, ' replied Caled, 'escaped me: but I heard Osmyn, like aperfidious and presumptuous slave, call ALMORAN a tyrant; I heard himprofess an inviolable friendship for HAMET, and assure him ofdeliverance. 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 of HAMET; 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 Caledtold him to be true, as the conversation he related had passed betweenhimself and HAMET, he exulted in the pleasing confidence that he had yeta friend; the glooms of suspicion, which had involved his mind, weredissipated, and his countenance brightened with complacency and joy. Hehad delayed to put Osmyn to death, only because he could appoint no manto succeed him, of whom his fears did not render him equally suspicious:but having now found, in Caled, a friend, whose fidelity had beenapproved when there had been no intention to try it; and being impatientto reward his zeal, and to invest his fidelity with that power, whichwould render his services most important; he took a ring from his ownfinger, and putting it upon that of Caled, 'Take this, ' said he, 'as apledge, that to-morrow Osmyn shall lose his head; and that, from thismoment, thou art invested with his power. '

Caled having, in the conversation between ALMORAN and HAMET, discernedindubitable treachery, which he imputed to Osmyn whose appearanceALMORAN had then assumed, eagerly seized the opportunity to destroy him;he, therefore, not trusting to the event of his accusation, had mingledpoison in the bowl which he presented to ALMORAN when he came out fromHAMET: this, however, at first he had resolved to conceal. 

In consequence of his accusation, he supposed Osmyn would be questionedupon the rack; he supposed also, that the accusation, as it was true, would be confirmed by his confession; that what ever he should then sayto the prejudice of his accuser, would be disbelieved; and that whenafter a few hours the poison should take effect, no inquisition would bemade into the death of a criminal, whom the bow-string or the scimitarwould otherwise have been employed to destroy. But he now hoped toderive new merit from an act of zeal, which ALMORAN had approved beforeit was known, by condemning his rival to die, whose death he had alreadyinsured: 'May the wishes of my lord, ' said he, 'be always anticipated;and may it be found, that whatever he ordains is already done: may heaccept the zeal of his servant, whom he has delighted to honour; for, before the light of the morning shall return, the eyes of Osmyn shallclose in everlasting darkness. '

At these words, the countenance of ALMORAN changed; his cheeks becamepale, 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 hismind, restrained his confusion and his fear, that he might learn thetruth from Caled without dissimulation or disguise, raised him from theground and repeated his enquiry. 'If I have erred, ' said Caled, 'imputeit not: when I had detected the treachery of Osmyn, I was transported bymy 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, Imingled, in the bowl I give him, the drugs of death. '

At these words, ALMORAN, striking his hands together, looked upward inan agony of despair and horror, and fell back upon a sofa that wasbehind him. Caled, whose astonishment was equal to his disappointmentand his fears, approached him with a trembling though hasty pace; but ashe stooped to support him, ALMORAN suddenly drew his dagger and stabbedhim to the heart; and repeated the blow with reproaches and execrations, till his strength failed him. 

In this dreadful moment, the Genius once more appeared before him; atthe sight of whom he waved his hand, but was unable to speak. 'Nothing, 'said the Genius, 'that has happened to ALMORAN, is hidden from me. Thypeace has been destroyed alike by the defection of Osmyn, and by thezeal of Caled: thy life may yet be preserved; but it can be preservedonly by a charm, which HAMET must apply. ' ALMORAN, who had raised hiseyes, and conceived some languid hope, when he heard that he might yetlive; cast them again down in despair, when he heard that he couldreceive life only from HAMET. 'From HAMET, ' said he, 'I have alreadytaken the power to save me; I have, by thy counsel, given him theinstrument of death, which, by thy counsel also, I urged him to use: hereceived it with joy, and he is now doubtless numbered with the dead. ''HAMET, ' said the Genius, 'is not dead; but from the fountain of virtuehe drinks life and peace. If what I shall propose, he refuses toperform, not all the powers of earth, and sea, and air, if they shouldcombine, can give thee life: but if he complies, the death, that is nowsuspended over thee, shall fall upon his head; and thy life shall beagain delivered to the hand of time. ' 'Make haste then, ' said ALMORAN, 'and I will here wait the event. ' 'The event, ' said the Genius, 'is notdistant; and it is the last experiment which my power can make, eitherupon him or thee: when the star of the night, that is now near thehorizon, shall set, I will be with him. '

When ALMORAN was alone, he reflected, that every act of supernaturalpower which the Genius had enabled him to perform, had brought upon himsome new calamity, though it always promised him some new advantage. Ashe would not impute this disappointment to the purposes for which heemployed the power that he had received, he indulged a suspicion, thatit proceeded from the perfidy of the Being by whom it was bestowed; inhis mind, therefore, he thus reasoned with himself: 'The Genius, who haspretended to be the friend of ALMORAN, has been secretly in confederacywith HAMET: why else do I yet sigh in vain for ALMEIDA? and why else didnot HAMET perish, when his life was in my power? By his counsel, Ipersuaded HAMET to destroy himself; and, in the very act, I was betrayedto drink the potion, by which I shall be destroyed: I have been led on, from misery to misery, by ineffectual expedients, and fallacious hopes. In this crisis of my fate, I will not trust, with implicit confidence, in another: I will be present at the interview of this powerful, butsuspected Being, with HAMET; and who can tell, but that if I detect afraud, I may be able to disappoint it: however powerful, he is notomniscient; I may, therefore, be present, unknown and unsuspected evenby him, in a form that I can chuse by a thought, to which he cannot beconscious. '

CHAP. XIX. 

In consequence of this resolution, ALMORAN, having commanded one of thesoldiers of the guard that attended upon HAMET into an inner room of thepalace, he ordered him to wait there till his return: then making fastthe door, he assumed his figure, and went immediately to the dungeon;where producing his signet, he said, he had received orders from theking to remain with the prisoner, till the watch expired. 

As he entered without speaking, and without a light, HAMET continuedstretched upon the ground, with his face towards the earth; and ALMORAN, having silently retired to a remote corner of the place, waited for theappearance of the Genius. 

The dawn of the morning now broke; and, in a few minutes, the prisonshook, and the Genius appeared. He was visible by a lambent light thatplayed around him; and HAMET starting from the ground, turned to thevision with reverence and wonder: but as the Omnipotent was ever presentto his mind, to whom all beings in all worlds are obedient, and on whomalone he relied for protection, he was neither confused nor afraid. 'HAMET, ' said the Genius, 'the crisis of thy fate is near. ' 'Who artthou, ' said HAMET, and for what purpose art thou come?' 'I am, ' repliedthe Genius, 'an inhabitant of the world above thee; and to the will ofthy brother, my powers have been obedient: upon him they have notconferred happiness, but they have brought evil upon thee. It was myvoice, that forbad thy marriage with ALMEIDA; and my voice, that decreedthe throne to ALMORAN: I gave him the power to assume thy form; and, byme, the hand of oppression is now heavy upon thee. Yet I have notdecreed, that he should be happy, nor that thou shouldst be wretched:darkness as yet rests upon my purpose; but my heart in secret is thyfriend. ' 'If thou art, indeed my friend, ' said HAMET, 'deliver me fromthis prison; and preserve HAMET for ALMEIDA. ' Thy deliverance, ' said theGenius, must depend upon thyself. There is a charm, of which the poweris great; but it is by thy will only, that this power can be exerted. '

The Genius then held out towards him a scroll, on which the seal ofseven powers was impressed. 'Take, said he, 'this scroll, in which themysterious name of Orosmades is written. Invoke the spirits, that residewestward from the rising of the sun; and northward, in the regions ofcold and darkness: then stretch out thy hand, and a lamp of sulphur, self kindled, shall burn before thee. In the fire of this lamp, consumethat which I now give thee; and as the smoke, into which it changes, shall mix with the air, a mighty charm shall be formed, which shalldefend thee from all mischief: from that instant no poison, howeverpotent, can hurt thee; nor shall any prison confine: in one moment, thoushalt be restored to the throne, and to ALMEIDA; and the Angel of death, shall lay his hand upon thy brother; to whom, if I had confided thislast best effort of my power, he would have secured the good to himself, and have transferred the evil to thee. '

ALMORAN, who had listened unseen to this address of the Genius to HAMET, was now confirmed in his suspicions, that evil had been ultimatelyintended against him; and that he had been entangled in the toils ofperfidy, while he believed himself to be assisted by the efforts offriendship: he was also convinced, that by the Genius he was not knownto be present. HAMET, however, flood still doubtful, and ALMORAN waskept silent by his fears. 'Whoever thou art, ' said HAMET, the conditionof the advantages which thou hast offered me, is such as it is notlawful to fulfill: these horrid rites, and this commerce with unholypowers, are prohibited to mortals in the Law of life. ' 'See thou tothat, ' said the Genius: 'Good and evil are before thee; that which I nowoffer thee, I will offer no more. '

HAMET, who had not fortitude to give up at once the possibility ofsecuring the advantages that had been offered, and who was seduced byhuman frailty to deliberate at least upon the choice; stretched out hishand, and receiving the scroll, the Genius instantly disappeared. Thatwhich had been proposed as a trial of his virtue, ALMORAN believedindeed to be an offer of advantage; he had no hope, therefore, but thatHAMET would refuse the conditions, and that he should be able to obtainthe talisman, and fulfill them himself: he judged that the mind of HAMETwas in suspense, and was doubtful to which side it might finallyincline; he, therefore, instantly assumed the voice and the person ofOMAR, that by the influence of his council he might be able to turn thescale. 

When the change was effected, he called HAMET by his name; and HAMET, who knew the voice, answered him in a transport of joy and wonder: 'Myfriend, ' said he, 'my father! in this dreary solitude, in this hour oftrial, thou art welcome to my soul as liberty and life! Guide me to theeby thy voice; and tell while I hold thee to my bosom, how and whereforethou art come?' 'Do not now ask me, ' said ALMORAN: 'it is enough that Iam here; and that I am permitted to warn thee of the precipice, on whichthou standest. It is enough, that concealed in this darkness, I haveoverheard the specious guile, which some evil demon has practised uponthee. ' 'Is it then certain, ' said HAMET, 'that this being is evil?' 'Isnot that being evil, said ALMORAN, ' 'who proposes evil, as the conditionof good?' 'Shall I then, ' said HAMET, 'renounce my liberty and life? Therack is now ready; and, perhaps, the next moment, its tortures will beinevitable. ' 'Let me ask thee then, ' said ALMORAN, 'to preserve thylife, wilt thou destroy thy soul?' 'O! stay, ' said HAMET--'Let me not betried too far! Let the strength of Him who is Almighty, be manifest inmy weakness!' HAMET then paused a few moments; but he was no longer indoubt: and ALMORAN, who disbelieved and despised the arguments, by whichhe intended to persuade him to renounce what, upon the same condition, he was impatient to secure for himself, conceived hopes that he shouldsucceed; and those hopes were instantly confirmed. ' 'Take then, ' saidHAMET, this unholy charm; and remove it far from me, as the sands ofAlai from the trees of Oman; lest, in some dreadful hour, my virtue mayfail me, and thy counsel may be wanting!' 'Give it me then, ' saidALMORAN; and feeling for the hands of each other, he snatched it fromhim in an extasy of joy, and instantly resuming his own voice andfigure, he cried out, 'At length I have prevailed: and life and love, dominion and revenge, are now at once in my hand!'

HAMET heard and knew the voice of his brother, with astonishment; but itwas too late to wish that he had withheld the charm, which his virtuewould not permit him to use. 'Yet a few moments pass, ' said ALMORAN, andthou art nothing. ' HAMET, who doubted not of the power of the talisman, and knew that ALMORAN had no principles which would restrain him fromusing it to his destruction, resigned himself to death, with a sacredjoy that he had escaped from guilt. ALMORAN then, with an elation ofmind that sparkled in his eyes, and glowed upon his cheek, stretched outhis hand, in which he held the scroll; and a lamp of burning sulphur wasimmediately suspended in the air before him: he held the mysteriouswriting in the flame; and as it began to burn, the place shook withreiterated thunder, of which every peal was more terrible and moreloud. HAMET, wrapping his robe round him, cried out, 'In the Fountainof Life that flows for ever, let my life be mingled! Let me not be, asif I had never been; but still conscious of my being, let me stillglorify Him from whom it is derived, and be still happy in his love!'

ALMORAN, who was absorbed in the anticipation of his own felicity, heardthe thunder without dread, as the proclamation of his triumph: 'Let thyhopes, ' said he, 'be thy portion; and the pleasures that I have secured, shall be mine. ' As he pronounced these words, he started as at a suddenpang; his eyes became fixed, and his posture immoveable; yet his sensesstill remained, and he perceived the Genius once more to stand beforehim. 'ALMORAN, ' said he, 'to the last sounds which thou shalt hear, letthine ear be attentive! Of the spirits that rejoice to fulfill thepurpose of the Almighty, I am one. To HAMET, and to ALMORAN, I have beencommissioned from above: I have been appointed to perfect virtue, byadversity; and in the folly of her own projects, to entangle vice. Thecharm, which could be formed only by guilt, has power only to producemisery: of every good, which thou, ALMORAN, wouldst have secured bydisobedience, the opposite evil is thy portion; and of every evil, whichthou, HAMET, wast, by Obedience, willing to incur, the opposite good isbestowed upon thee. To thee, HAMET, are now given the throne of thyfather, and ALMEIDA. And thou, ALMORAN, who, while I speak, artincorporating with the earth, shalt remain, through all generations, amemorial of the truths which thy life has taught!'

At the words of the Genius, the earth trembled beneath, and above thewalls of the prison disappeared: the figure of ALMORAN, which washardened into stone, expanded by degrees; and a rock, by which his formand attitude are still rudely expressed, became at once a monument ofhis punishment and his guilt. 

Such are the events recorded by ACMET, the descendant of the Prophet, and the preacher of righteousness! for, to ACMET, that which passed insecret was revealed by the Angel of instruction, that the world mightknow, that, to the wicked, increase of power is increase ofwretchedness; and that those who condemn the folly of an attempt todefeat the purpose of a Genius, might no longer hope to elude theappointment of the Most High.