Almeida, whose faculties were now suspended by wonder and expectation, looked earnestly at him, but continued silent.  ‘Thy looks,’ said Hamet, are full of wonder; but as yet thy wonder has no cause, in comparison of that which shall be revealed.  Thou knowest the prodigy, which so lately parted Hamet and Almeida:  I am that Hamet, thou art that Almeida.’  Almeida would now have interrupted him; but Hamet raised his voice, and demanded to be heard:  ‘At that moment,’ said he, ’wretched as I am, the child of error and disobedience, my heart repined in secret at the destiny which had been written upon my head; for I then thought thee faithful and constant:  but if our hands had been then united, I should have been more wretched than I am; for I now know that thou art fickle and false.  To know thee, though it has pierced my soul with sorrow, has yet healed the wound which was inflicted when I lost thee:  and though I am now compelled to wear the form of Almoran, whose vices are this moment disgracing mine, yet in the balance I shall be weighed as Hamet, and I shall suffer only as I am found wanting.’

Almeida, whose mind was now in a tumult that bordered upon distraction, bewildered in a labyrinth of doubt and wonder, and alike dreading the consequence of what she heard, whether it was false or true, was yet impatient to confute or confirm it; and as soon as she had recovered her speech, urged him for some token of the prodigy he asserted, which he might easily have given, by relating any of the incidents which themselves only could know.  But just at this moment, Almoran, having at last disengaged himself from Osmyn, by whom he had been long detained, resumed his own figure:  and while the eyes of Almeida were fixed upon Hamet, his powers were suddenly taken from him, and restored in an instant; and she beheld the features of Almoran vanish, and gazed with astonishment upon his own:  ‘Thy features change!’ said she, ’and thou indeed art Hamet.’  ‘The sudden trance,’ said he, ’has restored me to myself; and from my wrongs where shalt thou be hidden?’ This reproach was more than she could sustain, but he caught her as she was falling, and supported her in his arms.  This incident renewed in a moment all the tenderness of his love:  while he beheld her distress, and pressed her by the embrace that sustained her to his bosom, he forgot every injury which he supposed she had done him; and perceived her recover with a pleasure, that for a moment suspended the sense of his misfortunes.