ALMEIDA
beheld him with an earnest yet steady countenance, till he vowed to
revenge the indignity he had suffered, upon HAMET. At the name of HAMET,
her fortitude forsook her; the pride of virtue gave way to the softness
of love; her cheeks became pale, her lips trembled, and taking hold of
the robe of ALMORAN, she threw herself at his feet. His fury was it
first suspended by hope and expectation; but when from her words, which
grief and terror had rendered scarce articulate, he could learn only
that she was pleading for HAMET, he burst from her in an extasy of rage,
and forcing his robe from her hand, with a violence that dragged her
after it, he rushed out of the chamber, and left her prostrate upon the
ground.
As he passed through the gallery with a hasty and disordered pace, he
was seen by OMAR; who knowing that he was returned from an interview
with ALMEIDA, and conjecturing from his appearance what had happened,
judged that he ought not to neglect this opportunity to warn him once
more of the delusive phantoms, which, under the appearance of pleasure,
were leading him to destruction: he, therefore, followed him
unperceived, till he had reached the apartment in which he had been used
to retire alone, and heard again the loud and tumultuous exclamations,
which were wrung, from his heart by the anguish of disappointment: 'What
have I gained,' said he, 'by absolute dominion! The slave who, secluded
from the gales of life and from the light of heaven toils without hope
in the darkness of the mine, riots in the delights of paradise compared
with me.
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