In the mean time, the system of government was established which had
been proposed by OMAR, and in which HAMET concurred from principle, and
ALMORAN from policy. The views of ALMORAN terminated in the
gratification of his own appetites and passions; those of HAMET, in the
discharge of his duty: HAMET, therefore, was indefatigable in the
business of the state; and as his sense of honour, and his love of the
public, made this the employment of his choice, it was to him the
perpetual source of a generous and sublime felicity. ALMORAN also was
equally diligent, but from another motive: he was actuated, not by love
of the public, but by jealousy of his brother; he performed his task as
the drudge of necessity, with reluctance and ill will; so that to him it
produced pain and anxiety, weariness and impatience.
To atone for this waste of time, he determined to crowd all that
remained with delight: his gardens were an epitome of all nature, and on
his palace were exhausted all the treasures of art; his seraglio was
filled with beauties of every nation, and his table supplied with
dainties from the remotest corners of his dominions. In the songs that
were repeated in his presence, he listened at once to the voice of
adulation and music; he breathed the perfumes of Arabia, and he tasted
the forbidden pleasure of wine. But as every appetite is soon satiated
by excess, his eagerness to accumulate pleasure deprived him of
enjoyment. Among the variety of beauty that surrounded him, the passion,
which, to be luxurious, must be delicate and refined, was degraded to a
mere instinct, and exhausted in endless dissipation; the caress was
unendeared by a consciousness of reciprocal delight, and was immediately
succeeded by indifference or disgust. By the dainties that perpetually
urged him to intemperance, that appetite, which alone could make even
dainties tasteful, was destroyed. The splendor of his palace and the
beauty of his gardens, became at length so familiar to his eye, that
they were frequently before him, without being seen. Even flattery and
music lost their power, by too frequent a repetition: and the broken
slumbers of the night, and the languor of the morning, were more than
equivalent to the transient hilarity that was inspired by wine. Thus
passed the time of ALMORAN, divided between painful labours which he did
not dare to shun, and the search of pleasure which he could never find.
HAMET, on the contrary, did not seek pleasure, but pleasure seemed to
seek him: he had a perpetual complacence and serenity of mind, which
rendered him constantly susceptible of pleasing impressions; every thing
that was prepared to refresh or entertain him in his seasons of
retirement and relaxation, added something to the delight which was
continually springing in his breast, when he reviewed the past, or
looked forward to the future. Thus, the pleasures of sense were
heightened by those of his mind, and the pleasures of the mind by those
of sense: he had, indeed, as yet no wise; for as yet no woman had fixed
his attention, or determined his choice.
Among the ambassadors whom the monarchs of Asia sent to congratulate the
sons of Solyman upon their accession to the throne, there was a native
of Circassia, whose name was Abdallah. Abdallah had only one child, a
daughter, in whom all his happiness and affection centered; he was
unwilling to leave her behind, and therefore brought her to the court of
Persia. Her mother died while she was yet an infant; she was now in the
sixteenth year of her age, and her name was ALMEIDA. She was beautiful
as 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 of
the seraglio; and it happened that a lamp which had one night been left
burning in a lower apartment, by some accident set fire to the net-work
of cotton that surrounded a sopha, and the whole room was soon after in
a flame. ALMORAN, who had been passing the afternoon in riot and
debauchery, had been removed from his banquetting room asleep; but HAMET
was still in his closet, where he had been regulating some papers that
were to be used the next day. The windows of this room opened towards
the inner apartments of the house in which Abdallah resided; and HAMET,
having by accident looked that way, was alarmed by the appearance of an
unusual light, and starting up to see whence it proceeded, he discovered
what had happened.
Having hastily ordered the guard of the night to assist in quenching the
flame, and removing the furniture, he ran himself into the garden. As
soon as he was come up to the house, he was alarmed by the shrieks of a
female voice; and the next moment, ALMEIDA appeared at the window of an
apartment directly over that which was on fire. ALMEIDA he had till now
never seen, nor did he so much as know that Abdallah had a daughter: but
though 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 of
his voice she ran back into the room, such is the force of inviolate
modesty, though the smoke was then rising in curling spires from the
windows: she was, however, soon driven back; and part of the floor at
the same instant giving way, she wrapt her veil round her, and leaped
into the garden. HAMET caught her in his arms; but though he broke her
fall, he sunk down with her weight: he did not, however, quit his
charge, but perceiving she had fainted, he made haste with her into his
apartment, 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 his
closet, the light discovered to him such beauty as before he had never
seen: she now began to revive; and before her senses returned, she
pressed the prince with an involuntary embrace, which he returned by
straining her closer to his breast, in a tumult of delight, confusion,
and anxiety, which he could scarce sustain. As he still held her in his
arms, and gazed silently upon her, she opened her eyes, and instantly
relinquishing her hold, shrieked out, and threw herself from him. As
there were no women nearer than that wing of the palace in which his
brother resided, and as he had many reasons not to leave her in their
charge; he was in the utmost perplexity what to do. He assured her, in
some hasty and incoherent words, of her security; he told her, that she
was in the royal palace, and that he who had conveyed her thither was
HAMET. The habitual reverence of sovereign power, now surmounted all
other passions in the bosom of ALMEIDA: she was instantly covered with
new confusion; and hiding her face with her hands, threw herself at his
feet: he raised her with a trepidation almost equal to her own, and
endeavoured to sooth her into confidence and tranquillity.
Hitherto her memory had been wholly suspended by violent passions, which
had crowded upon her in a rapid and uninterrupted succession, and the
first gleam of recollection threw her into a new agony; and having been
silent a few moments, she suddenly smote her hands together, and
bursting into tears, cried out, 'Abdallah! my father! my father!'--HAMET
not only knew but felt all the meaning of the exclamation, and
immediately ran again into the garden: he had advanced but a few paces,
before he discerned an old man sitting upon the ground, and looking
upward in silent anguish, as if he had exhausted the power of complaint.
HAMET, upon a nearer approach, perceived by the light of the flame that
it was Abdallah; and instantly calling him by his name, told him, that
his daughter was safe. At the name of his daughter, Abdallah suddenly
started up, as if he had been roused by the voice of an angel from the
sleep of death: HAMET again repeated, that his daughter was in safety;
and Abdallah looking wistfully at him, knew him to be the king. He was
then struck with an awe that restrained him from enquiry: but HAMET
directing him where he might find her, went forward, that he might not
lessen the pleasure of their interview, nor restrain the first
transports of duty and affection by his presence. He soon met with other
fugitives from the fire, which had opened a communication between the
gardens and the street; and among them some women belonging to ALMEIDA,
whom, he conducted himself to their mistress. He immediately allotted to
her and to her father, an apartment in his division of the palace; and
the fire being now nearly extinguished, he retired to rest.