At the moment of transformation, HAMET was seized with a sudden languor,
and his faculties were suspended as by the stroke of death. When he
recovered, his limbs still trembled, and his lips were parched with
thirst: he rose, therefore, and entering the cavern, at the mouth of
which he had been sitting, he stooped over the well to drink; but
glancing his eyes upon the water, he saw, with astonishment and horror,
that it reflected, not his own countenance, but that of his brother. He
started back from the prodigy; and supporting himself against the side
of the rock, he stood some time like a statue, without the power of
recollection: but at length the thought suddenly rushed into his mind,
that the same sorcery which had suspended his marriage, and driven him
from the throne was still practised against him; and that the change of
his figure to that of ALMORAN, was the effect of ALMORAN'S having
assumed his likeness, to obtain, in this disguise, whatever ALMEIDA
could bestow. This thought, like a whirlwind of the desert, totally
subverted his mind; his fortitude was borne down, and his hopes were
rooted up; no principles remained to regulate his conduct, but all was
phrensy, confusion, and despair. He rushed out of the cave with a
furious and distracted look; and went in haste towards the city, without
having formed any design, or considered any consequence that might
follow.
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