At present, this prospect was not immediate, for Oriana was only in her fourteenth year; but the Sachem was resolved that she should be worthy of the hand of the greatest warriors of her tribe, and he took pains to have her instructed in every art that was considered valuable or ornamental to an Indian female.  Already she could perform the most elaborate patterns in native embroidery on her father’s pouches and moccasins; and her own garments were also delicately and fancifully adorned in the same manner, with feathers, and shells, and colored grasses.  Besides this accomplishment, her skill in Indian cookery was very great; and she could also use a bow and arrows, or cast a light javelin, or swim across a rapid river, with a grace and activity that delighted her proud father.

Oriana, too, was gentle—­as gentle as her mother, and her influence over Tisquantum bade fair to equal that which his much-cherished and deeply regretted wife had exercised over him.  That influence had ever been employed in the cause of mercy! and many an enemy, and many a subject, had lived to bless the name of the Squaw-Sachem Oriana, when she had quelled the wrath of the offended Chief, and turned aside his intended vengeance.

It was to the inner apartment of his spacious lodge, where his daughter and her attendants were busily engaged in their domestic occupations, that Henrich bad been led.  His arms were still tied behind his back, and the end of the rope that bound them was secured to a post in the wall.  The Indian who, at his chief’s command, conducted him thither, briefly informed Oriana that he was a prisoner, and desired her women to look to his security:  and then he left the captive to his strange and inquisitive jailers.

When Tisquantum had emptied his long pipe, he bethought himself of the young captive’s position, and proceeded to his daughter’s apartment to give orders for his hospitable entertainment that evening, and his safe lodgment for the night—­that night which he was resolved should be his last.  As he approached the thick curtain of deer-skins that hung over the aperture between the two apartments, he thought he heard a strange sweet voice speaking the Indian language with a foreign accent; and hastily drawing aside the heavy drapery, he was astonished to see his prisoner, and intended victim, liberated from the cord that had bound him, and reclining on the furs and cushions that formed Oriana’s usual resting-place; while his gentle Indian child knelt beside him, and offered him the food of which he was so much in need.  Henrich was gratefully thanking her; and as the Sachem entered, he heard him exclaim in mournful accents—­

’But why do you thus so kindly treat me?  It were better to let me die of hunger and fatigue; for I know that to-morrow my blood is to be shed:  the cold knife is to pierce my heart.’

‘It shall not be,’ replied Oriana, fervently.  ’I have said that I will save you.’  And then she raised her sparkling eyes as she heard her father’s entrance; and springing on her feet, she darted forward, and caught his arm.