the end of the next hour, was as certain as that the next hour would
arrive, suddenly entered the apartment; but upon discovering HAMET, he
started back astonished and disappointed. HAMET stood unmoved; and
regarded him with a fixed and steady look, that at once reproached and
confounded him. 'What treachery,' said ALMORAN, 'has been practised
against me? What has brought thee to this place; and how hast thou
gained admittance?' 'Against thy peace,' said HAMET, 'no treachery has
been practised, but by thyself. By those arts in which thy vices have
employed the powers of darkness, I have been brought hither; and by
those arts I have gained admittance: thy form which they have imposed
upon me, was my passport; and by the restoration of my own, I have
detected and disappointed the fraud, which the double change was
produced to execute. ALMEIDA, whom, as HAMET, thou couldst teach to
hate thee, it is now impossible that, as ALMORAN, thou shouldst teach to
love.'

ALMEIDA, who perceived the storm to be gathering which the next moment
would burst upon the head of HAMET, interposed between them, and
addressed each of them by turns; urging HAMET to be silent, and
conjuring ALMORAN to be merciful. ALMORAN, however, without regarding
ALMEIDA, or making any reply to HAMET, struck the ground with his foot,
and the messengers of death, to whom the signal was familiar, appeared
at the door. ALMORAN then commanded them to seize his brother, with a
countenance pale and livid, and a voice that was broken by rage. HAMET
was still unmoved; but ALMEIDA threw herself at the feet of ALMORAN, and
embracing his knees was about to speak, but he broke from her with
sudden fury: 'If the world should sue,' said he, 'I would spurn it off.
There is no pang that cunning can invent, which he shall not suffer: and
when death at length shall disappoint my vengeance, his mangled limbs
shall be cast out unburied, to feed the beasts of the desert and the