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.
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