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Almoran and Hamet by John Hawkesworth
page 78 of 110 (70%)
vehemence, in which, to less partial eyes, desire would have been more
apparent than love; and in the tumult of his passion, he almost
neglected her enquiries: finding, however, that she would be answered,
he told her, that being by the permission of ALMORAN admitted to every
part of the palace, except that of the women, he had found means to
bribe the eunuch who kept the door; who was not in danger of detection,
because ALMORAN, wearied with the tumult and fatigue of the day, had
retired to sleep, and given order to be called at a certain hour. She
then complained of the felicitations to which she was exposed, expressed
her dread of the consequences she had reason to expect from some sudden
sally of the tyrant's rage, and related with tears the brutal outrage
she had suffered when he last left her. 'Though I abhorred him,' said
she, 'I yet kneeled before him for thee. Let me bend in reverence to
that Power, at whose look the whirlwinds are silent, and the seas are
calm, that his fury has hitherto been restrained from hurting thee!'

At these words, the face of ALMORAN was again covered with the blushes
of confusion: to be still beloved only as HAMET, and as ALMORAN to be
still hated; to be thus reproached without anger, and wounded by those
who knew not that they struck him; was a species of misery peculiar to
himself, and had been incurred only by the acquisition of new powers,
which he had requested and received as necessary to obtain that
felicity, which the parsimony of nature had placed beyond his reach. His
emotions, however, as by ALMEIDA they were supposed to be the emotions
of HAMET, she imputed to a different cause: 'As Heaven,' says she, 'has
preserved thee from death; so has it, for thy sake, preserved me from
violation.' ALMORAN, whose passion had in this interval again surmounted
his remorse, gazed eagerly upon her, and catching her to his bosom; 'Let
us at least,' says he, 'secure the happiness that is now offered; let
not these inestimable moments pass by us unimproved; but to shew that we
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