'
At these words, ALMORAN rushed forward, and placing himself by the side
of ALMEIDA, the cloud disappeared; and he cried out, 'Let me now
proclaim to the world the secret, which to this moment I have hidden in
my bosom: I love ALMEIDA. The being who alone knew my love, has now by
miracle approved it. Let his decree be accomplished.' He then commanded
that the ceremony should proceed; and seizing the hand of the lady,
began to repeat that part of it which was to have been repeated by
HAMET. But ALMEIDA instantly drew her hand from him in an agony of
distress; and HAMET, who till then had stood motionless with amazement
and horror, started from his trance, and springing forward rushed
between them. ALMORAN turned fiercely upon him; but HAMET, who having
been warned by OMAR, knew the prodigy to be effected by some evil being
whom it was virtue to resist, laid his hand upon his scymitar, and, with
a frown of indignation and defiance, commanded him to stand off: 'I now
know thee,' said he, 'as a man; and, therefore, as a brother I know thee
not.'
ALMORAN reflecting, that the foundation of this reproach was unknown to
all who were present, and that to them he would therefore appear to be
injured; looked round with an affected smile of wonder and compassion,
as appealing to them from a charge that was thus fiercely and
injuriously brought against him, and imputing it to the violence of
sudden passions by which truth and reason were overborne.
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