In consequence of this resolution, ALMORAN, having commanded one of the
soldiers of the guard that attended upon HAMET into an inner room of the
palace, he ordered him to wait there till his return: then making fast
the door, he assumed his figure, and went immediately to the dungeon;
where producing his signet, he said, he had received orders from the
king to remain with the prisoner, till the watch expired.
As he entered without speaking, and without a light, HAMET continued
stretched upon the ground, with his face towards the earth; and ALMORAN,
having silently retired to a remote corner of the place, waited for the
appearance of the Genius.
The dawn of the morning now broke; and, in a few minutes, the prison
shook, and the Genius appeared. He was visible by a lambent light that
played around him; and HAMET starting from the ground, turned to the
vision with reverence and wonder: but as the Omnipotent was ever present
to his mind, to whom all beings in all worlds are obedient, and on whom
alone he relied for protection, he was neither confused nor afraid.
'HAMET,' said the Genius, 'the crisis of thy fate is near.' 'Who art
thou,' said HAMET, and for what purpose art thou come?' 'I am,' replied
the Genius, 'an inhabitant of the world above thee; and to the will of
thy brother, my powers have been obedient: upon him they have not
conferred happiness, but they have brought evil upon thee. It was my
voice, that forbad thy marriage with ALMEIDA; and my voice, that decreed
the throne to ALMORAN: I gave him the power to assume thy form; and, by
me, the hand of oppression is now heavy upon thee. Yet I have not
decreed, that he should be happy, nor that thou shouldst be wretched:
darkness as yet rests upon my purpose; but my heart in secret is thy
friend.' 'If thou art, indeed my friend,' said HAMET, 'deliver me from
this prison; and preserve HAMET for ALMEIDA.' Thy deliverance,' said the
Genius, must depend upon thyself. There is a charm, of which the power
is 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 of
seven powers was impressed. 'Take, said he, 'this scroll, in which the
mysterious name of Orosmades is written. Invoke the spirits, that reside
westward from the rising of the sun; and northward, in the regions of
cold and darkness: then stretch out thy hand, and a lamp of sulphur,
self kindled, shall burn before thee. In the fire of this lamp, consume
that 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 shall
defend thee from all mischief: from that instant no poison, however
potent, can hurt thee; nor shall any prison confine: in one moment, thou
shalt 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 this
last 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 ultimately
intended against him; and that he had been entangled in the toils of
perfidy, while he believed himself to be assisted by the efforts of
friendship: he was also convinced, that by the Genius he was not known
to be present. HAMET, however, flood still doubtful, and ALMORAN was
kept silent by his fears. 'Whoever thou art,' said HAMET, the condition
of the advantages which thou hast offered me, is such as it is not
lawful to fulfill: these horrid rites, and this commerce with unholy
powers, are prohibited to mortals in the Law of life.' 'See thou to
that,' said the Genius: 'Good and evil are before thee; that which I now
offer thee, I will offer no more.'
HAMET, who had not fortitude to give up at once the possibility of
securing the advantages that had been offered, and who was seduced by
human frailty to deliberate at least upon the choice; stretched out his
hand, and receiving the scroll, the Genius instantly disappeared. That
which had been proposed as a trial of his virtue, ALMORAN believed
indeed to be an offer of advantage; he had no hope, therefore, but that
HAMET would refuse the conditions, and that he should be able to obtain
the talisman, and fulfill them himself: he judged that the mind of HAMET
was in suspense, and was doubtful to which side it might finally
incline; he, therefore, instantly assumed the voice and the person of
OMAR, that by the influence of his council he might be able to turn the
scale.
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: 'My
friend,' said he, 'my father! in this dreary solitude, in this hour of
trial, thou art welcome to my soul as liberty and life! Guide me to thee
by thy voice; and tell while I hold thee to my bosom, how and wherefore
thou art come?' 'Do not now ask me,' said ALMORAN: 'it is enough that I
am here; and that I am permitted to warn thee of the precipice, on which
thou standest. It is enough, that concealed in this darkness, I have
overheard the specious guile, which some evil demon has practised upon
thee.' 'Is it then certain,' said HAMET, 'that this being is evil?' 'Is
not that being evil, said ALMORAN,' 'who proposes evil, as the condition
of good?' 'Shall I then,' said HAMET, 'renounce my liberty and life? The
rack is now ready; and, perhaps, the next moment, its tortures will be
inevitable.' 'Let me ask thee then,' said ALMORAN, 'to preserve thy
life, wilt thou destroy thy soul?' 'O! stay,' said HAMET--'Let me not be
tried too far! Let the strength of Him who is Almighty, be manifest in
my weakness!' HAMET then paused a few moments; but he was no longer in
doubt: and ALMORAN, who disbelieved and despised the arguments, by which
he intended to persuade him to renounce what, upon the same condition,
he was impatient to secure for himself, conceived hopes that he should
succeed; and those hopes were instantly confirmed.' 'Take then,' said
HAMET, this unholy charm; and remove it far from me, as the sands of
Alai from the trees of Oman; lest, in some dreadful hour, my virtue may
fail me, and thy counsel may be wanting!' 'Give it me then,' said
ALMORAN; and feeling for the hands of each other, he snatched it from
him in an extasy of joy, and instantly resuming his own voice and
figure, 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 it
was too late to wish that he had withheld the charm, which his virtue
would not permit him to use. 'Yet a few moments pass,' said ALMORAN, and
thou art nothing.' HAMET, who doubted not of the power of the talisman,
and knew that ALMORAN had no principles which would restrain him from
using it to his destruction, resigned himself to death, with a sacred
joy that he had escaped from guilt. ALMORAN then, with an elation of
mind that sparkled in his eyes, and glowed upon his cheek, stretched out
his hand, in which he held the scroll; and a lamp of burning sulphur was
immediately suspended in the air before him: he held the mysterious
writing in the flame; and as it began to burn, the place shook with
reiterated thunder, of which every peal was more terrible and more
loud. HAMET, wrapping his robe round him, cried out, 'In the Fountain
of Life that flows for ever, let my life be mingled! Let me not be, as
if I had never been; but still conscious of my being, let me still
glorify Him from whom it is derived, and be still happy in his love!'
ALMORAN, who was absorbed in the anticipation of his own felicity, heard
the thunder without dread, as the proclamation of his triumph: 'Let thy
hopes,' 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 sudden
pang; his eyes became fixed, and his posture immoveable; yet his senses
still remained, and he perceived the Genius once more to stand before
him. 'ALMORAN,' said he, 'to the last sounds which thou shalt hear, let
thine ear be attentive! Of the spirits that rejoice to fulfill the
purpose of the Almighty, I am one. To HAMET, and to ALMORAN, I have been
commissioned from above: I have been appointed to perfect virtue, by
adversity; and in the folly of her own projects, to entangle vice. The
charm, which could be formed only by guilt, has power only to produce
misery: of every good, which thou, ALMORAN, wouldst have secured by
disobedience, the opposite evil is thy portion; and of every evil, which
thou, HAMET, wast, by Obedience, willing to incur, the opposite good is
bestowed upon thee. To thee, HAMET, are now given the throne of thy
father, and ALMEIDA. And thou, ALMORAN, who, while I speak, art
incorporating with the earth, shalt remain, through all generations, a
memorial of the truths which thy life has taught!'
At the words of the Genius, the earth trembled beneath, and above the
walls of the prison disappeared: the figure of ALMORAN, which was
hardened into stone, expanded by degrees; and a rock, by which his form
and attitude are still rudely expressed, became at once a monument of
his 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 in
secret was revealed by the Angel of instruction, that the world might
know, that, to the wicked, increase of power is increase of
wretchedness; and that those who condemn the folly of an attempt to
defeat the purpose of a Genius, might no longer hope to elude the
appointment of the Most High.