offended being, 'Such,' said he, 'is the benevolence of the Almighty to
the children of the dust, that our misfortunes are, like poisons,
antidotes to each other.'

ALMEIDA, whose faculties were now suspended by wonder and expectation,
looked earnestly at him, but continued silent. 'Thy looks,' said HAMET,
are full of wonder; but as yet thy wonder has no cause, in comparison
of that which shall be revealed. Thou knowest the prodigy, which so
lately parted HAMET and ALMEIDA: I am that HAMET, thou art that
ALMEIDA.' ALMEIDA would now have interrupted him; but HAMET raised his
voice, and demanded to be heard: 'At that moment,' said he, 'wretched as
I am, the child of error and disobedience, my heart repined in secret at
the destiny which had been written upon my head; for I then thought thee
faithful and constant: but if our hands had been then united, I should
have been more wretched than I am; for I now know that thou art fickle
and false. To know thee, though it has pierced my soul with sorrow, has
yet healed the wound which was inflicted when I lost thee: and though I
am now compelled to wear the form of ALMORAN, whose vices are this
moment disgracing mine, yet in the balance I shall be weighed as HAMET,
and I shall suffer only as I am found wanting.'

ALMEIDA, whose mind was now in a tumult that bordered upon distraction,
bewildered in a labyrinth of doubt and wonder, and alike dreading the
consequence of what she heard, whether it was false or true, was yet
impatient to confute or confirm it; and as soon as she had recovered her
speech, urged him for some token of the prodigy he asserted, which he
might easily have given, by relating any of the incidents which
themselves only could know. But just at this moment, ALMORAN, having at
last disengaged himself from Osmyn, by whom he had been long detained,
resumed his own figure: and while the eyes of ALMEIDA were fixed upon