But just at this moment, ALMORAN, having at
last disengaged himself from Osmyn, by whom he had been long detained,
resumed his own figure: and while the eyes of ALMEIDA were fixed upon
HAMET, his powers were suddenly taken from him, and restored in an
instant; and she beheld the features of ALMORAN vanish, and gazed with
astonishment upon his own: 'Thy features change!' said she, 'and thou
indeed art HAMET.' 'The sudden trance,' said he, 'has restored me to
myself; and from my wrongs where shalt thou be hidden?' This reproach
was more than she could sustain, but he caught her as she was falling,
and supported her in his arms. This incident renewed in a moment all the
tenderness of his love: while he beheld her distress, and pressed her by
the embrace that sustained her to his bosom, he forgot every injury
which he supposed she had done him; and perceived her recover with a
pleasure, that for a moment suspended the sense of his misfortunes.
Her first reflection was upon the snare, in which she had been taken;
and her first sensation was joy that she had escaped: she saw at once
the whole complication of events that had deceived and distressed her;
and nothing more was now necessary, than to explain them to HAMET;
which, however, she could not do, without discovering the insincerity of
her answers to the enquiries which he had made, while she mistook him
for his brother: 'If in my heart,' says she, 'thou hast found any
virtue, let it incline thee to pity the vice that is mingled with it: by
the vice I have been ensnared, but I have been delivered by the virtue.
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