'
'HAMET,' said the Genius, 'is not dead; but from the fountain of virtue
he drinks life and peace. If what I shall propose, he refuses to
perform, not all the powers of earth, and sea, and air, if they should
combine, can give thee life: but if he complies, the death, that is now
suspended over thee, shall fall upon his head; and thy life shall be
again delivered to the hand of time.' 'Make haste then,' said ALMORAN,
'and I will here wait the event.' 'The event,' said the Genius, 'is not
distant; and it is the last experiment which my power can make, either
upon him or thee: when the star of the night, that is now near the
horizon, shall set, I will be with him.'
When ALMORAN was alone, he reflected, that every act of supernatural
power which the Genius had enabled him to perform, had brought upon him
some new calamity, though it always promised him some new advantage. As
he would not impute this disappointment to the purposes for which he
employed the power that he had received, he indulged a suspicion, that
it proceeded from the perfidy of the Being by whom it was bestowed; in
his mind, therefore, he thus reasoned with himself: 'The Genius, who has
pretended to be the friend of ALMORAN, has been secretly in confederacy
with HAMET: why else do I yet sigh in vain for ALMEIDA? and why else did
not HAMET perish, when his life was in my power? By his counsel, I
persuaded HAMET to destroy himself; and, in the very act, I was betrayed
to drink the potion, by which I shall be destroyed: I have been led on,
from misery to misery, by ineffectual expedients, and fallacious hopes.
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