Almeida, whom the manner and voice of Almoran had terrified into silence, answered him at first only with a look that expressed aversion and disdain, overawed by fear.  ‘Wilt thou not,’ said Almoran, ’fulfill the decrees of Heaven?  I conjure thee, ‘by Heaven, to answer.’  From this solemn reference to Heaven, Almeida derived new fortitude:  she instantly recollected, that she stood in the presence of Him, by whose permission only every other power, whether visible or invisible, can dispense evil or good:  ‘Urge no more,’ said she, ’as the decree of Heaven, that which is inconsistent with Divine perfection.  Can He in whose hand my heart is, command me to wed the man whom he has not enabled me to love?  Can the Pure, the Just, the Merciful, have ordained that I should suffer embraces which I loath, and violate vows which His laws permitted me to make?  Can He have ordained a perfidious, a loveless, and a joyless prostitution?  What if a thousand prodigies should concur to enforce it a thousand times, the deed itself would be a stronger proof that those prodigies were the works of darkness, than those prodigies that the deed was commanded by the Father of light.’

Almoran, whose hopes were now blasted to the root, who perceived that the virtue of Almeida could neither be deceived nor overborne; that she at once contemned his power, and abhorred his love; gave way to all the furies of his mind, which now slumbered no more:  his countenance expressed at once anger, indignation, and despair; his gesture became furious, and his voice was lost in menaces and execrations.  Almeida beheld him with an earnest yet steady countenance, till he vowed to revenge the indignity he had suffered, upon Hamet.  At the name of Hamet, her fortitude forsook her; the pride of virtue gave way to the softness of love; her cheeks became pale, her lips trembled, and taking hold of the robe of Almoran, she threw herself at his feet.  His fury was it first suspended by hope and expectation; but when from her words, which grief and terror had rendered scarce articulate, he could learn only that she was pleading for Hamet, he burst from her in an extasy of rage, and forcing his robe from her hand, with a violence that dragged her after it, he rushed out of the chamber, and left her prostrate upon the ground.

As he passed through the gallery with a hasty and disordered pace, he was seen by Omar; who knowing that he was returned from an interview with Almeida, and conjecturing from his appearance what had happened, judged that he ought not to neglect this opportunity to warn him once more of the delusive phantoms, which, under the appearance of pleasure, were leading him to destruction:  he, therefore, followed him unperceived, till he had reached the apartment in which he had been used to retire alone, and heard again the loud and tumultuous exclamations, which were wrung, from his heart by the anguish of disappointment:  ’What have I gained,’ said he, ’by absolute dominion!  The slave who, secluded from the gales of life and from the light of heaven toils without hope in the darkness of the mine, riots in the delights of paradise compared with me.  By the caprice of one woman, I am robbed not only of enjoyment but of peace, and condemned for ever to the torment of unsatisfied desire.’