As he was returning from the gallery, he was met by Osmyn and Caled, who had heard the supernatural declaration in his behalf, and learned its effects.  Almoran, in that hasty flow of unbounded but capricious favour, which, in contracted minds, is the effect only of unexpected good fortune, raised Osmyn from his feet to his bosom:  ‘As in the trial,’ said he, ’thou hast been faithful, I now invest thee with a superior trust.  The toils of state shall from this moment devolve upon thee; and from this moment, the delights of empire unallayed shall be mine:  I will recline at ease, remote from every eye but those that reflect my own felicity; the felicity that I shall taste in secret, surrounded by the smiles of beauty, and the gaities of youth.  Like heaven, I will reign unseen; and like heaven, though unseen, I will be adored.’  Osmyn received this delegation of power with a tumultuous pleasure, that was expressed only by silence and confusion.  Almoran remarked it; and exulting in the pride of power, he suddenly changed his aspect, and regarding Osmyn, who was yet blushing, and whose eyes were swimming in tears of gratitude, with a stern and ardent countenance; ’Let me, however,’ said he, ’warn thee to be watchful in thy trust:  beware, that no rude commotion violate my peace by thy fault; lest my anger sweep thee in a moment to destruction.’  He then directed his eye to Caled:  ‘And thou too,’ said he, ’hast been faithful; be thou next in honour and in power to Osmyn.  Guard both of you my paradise from dread and care; fulfill the duty that I have assigned you, and live.’

He was then informed by a messenger, that Hamet had escaped, and that Omar was taken.  As he now despised the power both of Hamet and Omar, he expressed neither concern nor anger that Hamet had fled; but he ordered Omar to be brought before him.

When Omar appeared bound and disarmed, he regarded him with a smile of insult and derision; and asked him, what he had now to hope.  ’I have, indeed,’ said Omar, ‘much less to hope, than thou hast to fear.’  ’Thy insolence,’ said Almoran, ’is equal to thy folly:  what power on earth is there, that I should fear?’ ‘Thy own,’ said Omar.  ’I have not leisure now,’ replied Almoran, ’to hear the paradoxes of thy philosophy explained:  but to shew thee, that I fear not thy power, thou shalt live.  I will leave thee to hopeless regret; to wiles that have been scorned and defeated; to the unheeded petulance of dotage; to the fondness that is repayed with neglect; to restless wishes, to credulous hopes, and to derided command:  to the slow and complicated torture of despised old age; and that, when thou shalt long have abhorred thy being, shall destroy it.’  ‘The misery,’ said Omar, ’which thou hast menaced, it is not in thy power to inflict.  As thou hast taken from me all that I possessed by the bounty of thy father, it is true that I am poor; it is true also, that my