reproached him with her wrongs. ALMORAN, that he might at once address
her virtue and her passions, observed, that though he had loved her from
the first moment he had seen her, yet he had concealed his passion even
from her, till it had received the sanction of an invisible and superior
power; that he came, therefore, the messenger of heaven; and that he
offered her unrivalled empire and everlasting love. To this she
answered only by an impatient and fond enquiry after HAMET. 'Think not
of HAMET,' said ALMORAN; 'for why should he who is rejected of Heaven,
be still the favorite of ALMEIDA?' 'If thy hand,' said ALMEIDA, 'could
quench in everlasting darkness, that vital spark of intellectual fire,
which the word of the Almighty has kindled in my breast to burn for
ever, then might ALMEIDA cease to think of HAMET; but while that shall
live, whatever form it shall inhabit, or in whatever world it shall
reside, his image shall be for ever present, and to him shall my love be
for ever true.' This glowing declaration of her love for HAMET, was
immediately succeeded by a tender anxiety for his safety; and a sudden
reflection upon the probability of his death, and the danger of his
situation if alive, threw her again into tears.

ALMORAN, whom the ardour and impetuosity of her passions kept sometimes
silent, and sometimes threw into confusion, again attempted to sooth and
comfort her: she often urged him to tell her what was become of his
brother, and he as often evaded the question. As she was about to renew
her enquiry, and reflected that it had already been often made, and had
not yet been answered, she thought that ALMORAN had already put him to
death: this threw her into a new agony, of which he did not immediately
discover the cause; but as he soon learned it from her reproaches and
exclamations, he perceived that he could not hope to be heard, while she
was in doubt about the safety of HAMET. In order, therefore, to sooth
her mind, and prevent its being longer possessed with an image that