ALMORAN by a letter, which OMAR, undertook to deliver, that he should
celebrate his marriage on the morrow. ALMORAN, who never doubted but he
should have notice of this event much longer before it was to happen,
read the letter with a perturbation that it was impossible to conceal:
he was alone in his private apartment, and taking his eye hastily from
the paper, he crushed it together in his hand, and thrusting it into his
bosom, turned from OMAR without speaking; and OMAR, thinking himself
dismissed, withdrew.

The passions which ALMORAN could no longer suppress, now burst out, in a
torrent of exclamation: 'Am I then, said he, 'blasted for ever with a
double curse, divided empire and disappointed love! What is dominion, if
it is not possessed alone? and what is power, which the dread of rival
power perpetually controuls? Is it for me to listen in silence to the
wrangling of slaves, that I may at last apportion to them what, with a
clamorous insolence, they demand as their due! as well may the sun
linger in his course, and the world mourn in darkness for the day, that
the glow-worm may still be seen to glimmer upon, the earth, and the
owls and bats that haunt the sepulchres of the dead enjoy a longer
night. Yet this have I done, because this has been done by HAMET: and my
heart sickens in vain with the desire of beauty, because my power
extends not to ALMEIDA. With dominion undivided and ALMEIDA, I should be
ALMORAN; but without them, I am less than nothing.'

OMAR, who, before he has passed the pavilion, heard a sound which he
knew to be the voice of ALMORAN, returned hastily to the chamber in
which he left him, believing he had withdrawn too soon, and that the
king, as he knew no other was present, was speaking to him: he soon drew
near enough to hear what was said; and while he was standing torpid in
suspense, dreading to be discovered, and not knowing how to retire,