Omar, who was impatient to apprize him that he was not alone, and to prevent his disclosing sentiments which he wished to conceal, now threw himself upon the ground at his feet.  ‘Presumptuous slave!’ said Almoran, ‘from whence, and wherefore art thou come?’ ‘I am come,’ said Omar, ’to tell thee that not the caprice of a woman, but the wishes of Almoran, have made Almoran wretched.’  The king, slung with the reproach, drew back, and with a furious look laid his hand upon his poignard; but was immediately restrained from drawing it, by his pride.  ‘I am come,’ said Omar, ’to repeat that truth, upon which, great as thou art, thy fate is suspended.  Thy power extends not to the mind of another; exert it, therefore, upon thy own:  suppress the wishes, which thou canst not fulfill, and secure the happiness that is within thy reach.’

Almoran, who could bear no longer to hear the precepts which he disdained to practice, sternly commanded Omar to depart:  ‘Be gone,’ said he, ’lest I crush thee like a noisome reptile, which men cannot but abhor, though it is too contemptible to be feared.’  ‘I go,’ said Omar, ’that my warning voice may yet again recall thee to the path of wisdom and of peace, if yet again I shall behold thee while it is to be found.’

CHAP.  XIII.

Almoran was now left alone; and throwing himself upon a sofa, he sat some time motionless and silent, as if all his faculties had been suspended in the stupefaction of despair.  He revolved in his mind the wishes that had been gratified, and the happiness of which he had been disappointed:  ‘I desired,’ said he, ’the pomp and power of undivided dominion; and Hamet was driven from the throne which he shared with me, by a voice from heaven:  I desired to break off his marriage with Almeida; and it was broken off by a prodigy, when no human power could have accomplished my desire.  It was my wish also to have the person of Almeida in my power, and this wish also has been gratified; yet I am still wretched.  But I am wretched, only because the means have not been adequate to the end:  what I have hitherto obtained, I have not desired for itself; and of that, for which I desired it, I am not possessed:  I am, therefore, still wretched, because I am weak.  With the soul of Almoran, I should have the form of Hamet:  then my wishes would indeed be filled; then would Almeida bless me with consenting beauty, and the splendor of my power should distinguish only the intervals of my love; my enjoyments would then be certain and permanent, neither blasted by disappointment, nor withered by satiety.’  When he had uttered these reflections with the utmost vehemence and agitation, his face was again obscured by gloom and despair; his posture was again fixed; and he was falling back into his former state of silent abstraction, when he was suddenly roused by the appearance of the Genius, the sincerity of whose friendship he began to distrust.