now you will believe me, when I own my conviction that your destruction has been his object since the time I joined your camp:  and that, to accomplish it, and obtain possession of Oriana, he returned to Tisquantum’s tribe, and has worn the mask of friendship for so many months.  My soul is relieved of a burden by his death; and forgive me, Henrich, if I own that I glory in having executed on him the vengeance he deserved, and having devoted him to the fate he designed for you.’

Henrich could not regret the death, however dreadful, of one who seemed to have been so bent on the destruction of his happiness and his life; but the thought of all the guilt that lay on Coubitant’s soul, unrepented of and unatoned, saddened and solemnized his spirit; and he only replied to Jyanough’s exulting words by a kindly pressure of his friend’s hand, as they approached Oriana.

Her senses bad returned, and, with them, a painful sense of danger and of dread, and she looked anxiously, and almost wildly, around her, as Henrich knelt beside her, and gently raised her from the ground.

‘Where is he?’ she exclaimed.  ’Where is that fearful form, and those eyes of unearthly fire that glared on me just now?  You are safe, my Henrich,’ she added; and, as she looked up in his face, tears of joy and gratitude burst from her large expressive eyes, and relieved her bursting heart.  You are safe, my Henrich:  and oh that that dark form of dread and evil might never, never, cross my path again!’

‘Fear not, Oriana,’ replied Jyanough, ’he never more will darken your way through life.  He has met the death he designed for Henrich, and let us think of him no more.  It is time to return to the camp; and your husband and I will support you down the hill.’

‘I am well, quite well, now !’ cried Oriana, and she rose from the ground, and clung to Henrich’s arm, as if to assure herself of his presence and safety.  ’I could walk through the world thus supported, and thus guarded, too,’ she added, as she stroked the head of the joyous Rodolph, who now bounded round her and Henrich with all his wonted spirit.  ’I owe much to my two trusty friends; for, but for their care and watchfulness, what would now have been my dreadful fate!  Let us leave this spot—­so beautiful, but now so full of fearful images!’

CHAPTER XVII.

’Hither and thither; hither and thither! 
Madly they fly! 
Whither, O, whither!  Whither, O, whither? —
’Tis but to die! 
Fire is behind them:  fire is, around them: 
Black is the sky? 
Horror pursues them; anguish has found them: 
Destruction is nigh! 
And where is refuge? where is safety now? 
Father of mercy!  None can Save but Thou?’ ANON.

‘What is that distant cloud, Henrich?’ inquired Oriana, as they rode by Tisquantum’s side on the evening of the day of their journey towards the Missouri.  ’It seems like the smoke of an encampment, as I see it over the tall waving grass:  but it must be too near to be the camp of our people; unless, indeed, they have tarried there, waiting the arrival of Coubitant, who never will rejoin them more.’