Almeida, as soon as she was left alone, began to review the scene that had just past; and was every moment affected with new wonder, grief, and resentment.  She now deplored her own misfortune; and now conceived a design to punish the author of it, from whose face she supposed the hand of adversity had torn the mask under which he had deceived her:  it appeared to her very easy, to take a severe revenge upon Hamet for the indignity which she supposed he had offered her, by complaining of it to Almoran; and telling him, that he had gained admittance to her by bribing the eunuch who kept the door.  The thought of thus giving him up, was one moment rejected, as arising from a vindictive spirit; and the next indulged, as an act of justice to Almoran, and a punishment due to the hypocrisy of Hamet:  to the first she inclined, when her grief, which was still mingled with a tender remembrance of the man she loved, was predominant; and to the last, when her grief gave way to indignation.

Thus are we inclined to consider the same action, either as a virtue, or a vice, by the influence of different passions, which prompt us either to perform or to avoid it.  Almeida, from deliberating whether she should accuse Hamet to Almoran, or conceal his fault, was led to consider what punishment he would either incur or escape in consequence of her determination; and the images that rushed into her mind, the moment this became the object of her thoughts, at once determined her to be silent:  ‘Could I bear to see,’ said she, ’that hand, which has so often trembled with delight when it enfolded mine, convulsed and black! those eyes, that as often as they gazed upon me were dissolved in tears of tenderness and love, start from the sockets! and those lips that breathed the softest sighs of elegant desire, distorted and gasping in the convulsions of death!’

From this image, her mind recoiled in an agony of terror and pity; her heart sunk within her; her limbs trembled she sunk down upon the sofa, and burst into tears.

By this time, Hamet, on whose form the likeness of Almoran was still impressed, had reached the palace.  He went instantly towards the apartment of the women.  Instead of that chearful alacrity, that mixture of zeal and reverence and affection, which his eye had been used to find where-ever it was turned, he now observed confusion, anxiety and terror; whoever he met, made haste to prostrate themselves before him, and feared to look up till he was past.  He went on, however, with a hasty pace; and coming up to the eunuch’s guard, he said with an impatient tone; ‘To Almeida.’  The slave immediately made way before him, and conducted him to the door of the apartment, which he would not otherwise have been able to find, and for which he could not directly enquire.