disappointment of his hope, and the violation of his right, were the
chief objects of her regret and her fears, in all that had already
happened, and in all that was still to come; every insult that might be
offered to herself, she considered as an injury to him. Yet the
thoughts of all that he might suffer in her person, gave way to her
apprehensions of what might befall him in his own: in his situation,
every calamity that her imagination could conceive, was possible; her
thoughts were, therefore, bewildered amidst an endless variety of
dreadful images, which started up before them which way soever they were
turned; and it was impossible that she could gain any certain
intelligence of his fate, as the splendid prison in which she was now
confined, was surrounded by mutes and eunuchs, of whom nothing could be
learned, or in whole report no confidence could be placed.

While her mind was in this state of agitation and distress, she
perceived the door open, and the next moment ALMORAN entered the
apartment. When she saw him, she turned from him with a look of
unutterable anguish; and hiding her face in her veil, she burst into
tears. The tyrant was moved with her distress; for unfeeling obduracy is
the vice only of the old, whose sensibility has been worn away by the
habitual perpetration of reiterated wrongs.

He approached her with looks of kindness, and his voice was
involuntarily modulated to pity; she was, however, too much absorbed in
her own sorrows, to reply. He gazed upon her with tenderness and
admiration; and taking her hand into his own, he pressed it ardently to
his bosom: his compassion soon kindled into desire, and from soothing
her distress, he began to solicit her love. This instantly roused her
attention, and resentment now suspended her grief: she turned from him
with a firm and haughty step, and instead of answering his professions,