her sincerity she had determined to conceal. ALMORAN was now exalted in
her opinion, while his form was animated by the spirit of HAMET; as much
as HAMET had been degraded, while his form was animated by the spirit
of ALMORAN. In his resentment of her perfidy to his rival, though it
favoured his fondest and most ardent wishes, there was an abhorrence of
vice, and a generosity of mind, which she supposed to have been
incompatible with his character. To his reproach, she could reply only
by complaint; and could no otherwise evade his question, than by
observing the inconsistency of his own behaviour: 'Your words,' said
she, 'are daggers to my heart. You condemn me for a compliance with your
own wishes; and for obedience to that voice, which you supposed to have
revealed the will of Heaven. Has the caprice of desire already wandered
to a new object? and do you now seek a pretence to refuse, when it is
freely offered, what so lately you would have taken by force?'

HAMET, who was now fired with resentment against ALMEIDA, whom yet he
could not behold without desire; and who, at the same moment, was
impatient to revenge his wrongs upon ALMORAN; was suddenly prompted to
satisfy all his passions, by taking advantage of the wiles of ALMORAN,
and the perfidy of ALMEIDA, to defeat the one and to punish the other.
It was now in his power instantly to consummate his marriage, as a
priest might be procured without a moment's delay, and as ALMEIDA'S
consent was already given; he would then obtain the possession of her
person, by the very act in which she perfidiously resigned it to his
rival; to whom he would then leave the beauties he had already
possessed, and cast from him in disdain, as united with a mind that he
could never love. As his imagination was fired with the first conception
of this design, he caught her to his breast with a fury, in which all
the passions in all their rage were at once concentered: 'Let the
priest,' said he, 'instantly unite us. Let us comprize, in one moment,