upernatural
power which the Genius had enabled him to perform, had brought upon him
some new calamity, though it always promised him some new advantage. As
he would not impute this disappointment to the purposes for which he
employed the power that he had received, he indulged a suspicion, that
it proceeded from the perfidy of the Being by whom it was bestowed; in
his mind, therefore, he thus reasoned with himself: 'The Genius, who has
pretended to be the friend of ALMORAN, has been secretly in confederacy
with HAMET: why else do I yet sigh in vain for ALMEIDA? and why else did
not HAMET perish, when his life was in my power? By his counsel, I
persuaded HAMET to destroy himself; and, in the very act, I was betrayed
to drink the potion, by which I shall be destroyed: I have been led on,
from misery to misery, by ineffectual expedients, and fallacious hopes.
In this crisis of my fate, I will not trust, with implicit confidence,
in another: I will be present at the interview of this powerful, but
suspected Being, with HAMET; and who can tell, but that if I detect a
fraud, I may be able to disappoint it: however powerful, he is not
omniscient; I may, therefore, be present, unknown and unsuspected even
by him, in a form that I can chuse by a thought, to which he cannot be
conscious.'

CHAP. XIX.

In consequence of this resolution, ALMORAN, having commanded one of the
soldiers of the guard that attended upon HAMET into an inner room of the
palace, he ordered him to wait there till his return: then making fast
the door, he assumed his figure, and went immediately to the dungeon;
where producing his signet, he said, he had received orders from the
king to remain with the prisoner, till the watch expired.

As he entered without speaking, and without a light, HAMET continued
stretched upon the ground, with his face towards the earth; and ALMORAN,
having silently retired to a remote corner of the place, waited for the
appearance of the Genius.

The dawn of the morning now broke; and, in a few minutes, the prison
shook, and the Genius appeared. He was visible by a lambent light that
played around him; and HAMET starting from the ground, turned to the
vision with reverence and wonder: but as the Omnipotent was ever present
to his mind, to whom all beings in all worlds are obedient, and on whom
alone he relied for protection, he was neither confused nor afraid.
'HAMET,' said the Genius, 'the crisis of thy fate is near.' '