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

ALMORAN, who with the form assumed the manners of HAMET, addressed Osmyn with a mild though mournful countenance: ‘At length,’ said he, ’the will of ALMORAN alone is law; does it permit me to hold a private rank in this place, without molestation?’ ‘It permits,’ said Osmyn, ’yet more; he has commanded, that you should have admittance to Almeida.’ ALMORAN, whose vanity betrayed him to flatter his own power in the person of HAMET, replied with a smile: ’I know, that ALMORAN, who presides like a God in silent and distant state, reveals the secrets of his will to thee; I know that thou art’ ’I am,’ said Osmyn, ’of all thou seest, most wretched.’ At this declaration, ALMORAN turned short, and fixed his eyes upon Osmyn with a look of surprize and anger: ’Does not the favour of ALMORAN,’ said he, ’whose smile is power, and wealth, and honour, shine upon thee?’ ‘My lord,’ said Osmyn, ’I know so well the severity of thy virtue, that if I should, even for thy sake, become perfidious to thy brother’ ALMORAN, who was unable to preserve the character of HAMET with 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 him the figure of HAMET, proceeded in his purpose: ‘I knew,’ said he, ’that in thy judgment I should be condemned; and yet, the preservation of life is the strongest principle of nature, and the love of virtue is her proudest boast.’ ‘Explain thyself,’ said ALMORAN, ’for I cannot comprehend thee.’ ‘I mean,’ said Osmyn, ’that he, whose life depends upon the caprice of a tyrant, is like the wretch whose sentence is already pronounced; and who, if the wind does but rush by his dungeon, imagines that it is the bow-string and the mute.’ ‘Fear not,’ said ALMORAN, who now affected to be again calm; ’be still faithful, and thou shalt still be safe.’ ‘Alas!’ said Osmyn, there is no diligence, no toil, no faith, that can secure the slave from the sudden phrensy of passion, from, the causeless rage either of drunkenness or lust. I am that slave; the slave of a tyrant whom I hate.’ The confusion of ALMORAN was now too great to be concealed, and he stood silent with rage, fear, and indignation. Osmyn, supposing that his wonder suspended his belief of what he had heard, confirmed his declaration by an oath.

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

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

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

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

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

In this disposition, and with this design, he was admitted 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 solicited by all the powers of subtilty and desire, under the appearance of a lover whose tenderness and fidelity had been long tried, and whose passion she returned with equal constancy and ardour; and she was thus solicited, when the rites which alone could consecrate their union, were impossible, and were rendered impossible by the guilty designs of a rival, in whose power she was, and from whom no other expedient offered her a deliverance. Thus deceived and betrayed, she received him with an excess of tenderness and joy, which flattered all his hopes, and for a moment suspended his misery. She enquired, with a fond and gentle solicitude, by what means he had gained admittance, and how he had provided for his retreat. He received and returned her caresses with a vehemence, in which, to less partial eyes, desire would have been more apparent than love; and in the tumult of his passion, he almost neglected her enquiries: finding, however, that she would be answered, he told her, that being by the permission of ALMORAN admitted to every part of the palace, except that of the women, he had found means to bribe the eunuch who kept the door; who was not in danger of detection, because ALMORAN, wearied with the tumult and fatigue of the day, had retired to sleep, and given order to be called at a certain hour. She then complained of the félicitations to which she was exposed, expressed her dread of the consequences she had reason to expect from some sudden sally of the tyrant’s rage, and related with tears the brutal outrage she had suffered when he last left her. ‘Though I abhorred him,’ said she, ’I yet kneeled before him for thee. Let me bend in reverence to that Power, at whose look the whirlwinds are silent, and the seas are calm, that his fury has hitherto been restrained from hurting thee!’

At these words, the face of ALMORAN was again covered with the blushes of confusion: to be still beloved only as HAMET, and as ALMORAN to be still hated; to be thus reproached without anger, and wounded by those who knew not that they struck him; was a species of misery peculiar to himself, and had been incurred only by the acquisition of new powers, which he had requested and received as necessary to obtain that felicity, which the parsimony of nature had placed beyond his reach. His emotions, however, as by Almeida they were supposed to be the emotions of HAMET, she imputed to a different cause: ‘As Heaven,’ says she, ’has preserved thee from death; so has it, for thy sake, preserved me from violation.’ ALMORAN, whose passion had in this interval again surmounted his remorse, gazed eagerly upon her, and catching her to his bosom; ’Let us at least,’ says he, ’secure the happiness that is now offered; let not these inestimable moments pass by us unimproved; but to shew that we deserve them, let them be devoted to love.’ ‘Let us then,’ 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 was admitted, and I shall thus retaliate his friendship with destruction.’ ‘Let him then,’ said Almeida, ‘be the partner of our flight.’ ’Urge it not now,’ said ALMORAN; ’but trust to my prudence and my love, to select some hour that will be more favourable to our purpose. And yet,’ said he, ’even then, we shall, as now, sigh in vain for the completion of our wishes: by whom shall our hands be joined, when in the opinion of the priests it has been forbidden from above?’ ‘Save thyself then,’ said Almeida, 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; for the public form can only declare that right by which I claim it now.’

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

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

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

ALMORAN, whose whole soul was now suspended in attention, conceived new hopes of success; and foresaw the certain accomplishment of his purpose, though by an effect directly contrary to that which he had laboured to produce. Thus to have incurred the hatred of Almeida in the form of HAMET, was more fortunate than to have taken advantage of her love; the path that led to his wishes was now clear and open; and his marriage with Almeida in his own person, waited only till he could resume it. He, therefore, instead of soothing, provoked her resentment: ’If thou hast loved a phantom,’ said he, ’which existed only in imagination; on such a phantom my love also has been fixed: thou hast, indeed, only the form of what I called Almeida; my love thou hast rejected, because thou hast never loved; the object of thy passion was not HAMET, but a throne; and thou hast made the observance of rituals, in which folly only can suppose there is good or ill, a pretence to violate thy faith, that thou mayst still gratify thy ambition.’

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

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