his
fortitude; and the time being now near, when he was to conduct ALMEIDA
to the court of the palace, where the marriage ceremony was to be
performed; they parted with mutual benedictions, each recommending the
other to the protection of the Most High.

At the appointed hour, the princes of the court being assembled, the
mufti and the imans being ready, and ALMORAN seated upon his throne;
HAMET and ALMEIDA came forward, and were placed one on the right hand,
and the other on the left. The mufti was then advancing, to hear and to
record the mutual promise which was to unite them; ALMORAN was
execrating the appearance of the Genius, as a delusive dream, in all the
tumults of anguish and despair; and HAMET began to hope, that the
suspicions of OMAR had been ill founded; when a stroke of thunder shook
the palace to its foundations, and a cloud rose from the ground, like a
thick smoke, between HAMET and ALMEIDA.

ALMORAN, who was inspired with new confidence and hope, by that which
had struck the rest of the assembly with terror, started from his seat
with an ardent and furious look; and at the same moment, a voice, that
issued from the cloud, pronounced with a loud but hollow tone,

'Fate has decreed, to ALMORAN, ALMEIDA.'

At these words, ALMORAN rushed forward, and placing himself by the side
of ALMEIDA, the cloud disappeared; and he cried out, 'Let me now
proclaim to the world the secret, which to this moment I have hidden in
my bosom: I love ALMEIDA. The being who alone knew my love, has now by
miracle approved it. Let his decree be accomplished.' He then commanded
that the ceremony should proceed; and seizing the hand of the lady,
began to repeat that part of it which was to have been repeated by
HAMET. But ALMEIDA instantly drew her hand from him in an agony of
distress; and HAMET, who till then had stood motionless with amazement
and horror, started from his trance, and springing forward rushed
between them. ALMORAN turned fiercely upon him; but HAMET, who having
been warned by OMAR, knew the prodigy to be effected by some evil being
whom it was virtue to resist, laid his hand upon his scymitar, and, with
a frown of indignation and defiance, commanded him to stand off: 'I now
know thee,' said he, 'as a man; and, therefore, as a brother I know thee
not.'

ALMORAN reflecting, that the foundation of this reproach was unknown to
all who were present, and that to them he would therefore appear to be
injured; look