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 felicitations to which she was exposed, expressed
her dread of the consequences she had reason to expect from some sudden
sally of the tyrant's rage, and related with tears the brutal outrage
she had suffered when he last left her. 'Though I abhorred him,' said
she, 'I yet kneeled before him for thee. Let me bend in reverence to
that Power, at whose look the whirlwinds are silent, and the seas are
calm, that his fury has hitherto been restrained from hurting thee!'
At these words, the face 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.