distant kills; while
flashes of forked lightning followed one another rapidly, and
dispelled, for a moment, the unnatural darkness. The young Indian clung
trembling and terrified to her companion, and hid her face on his
shoulder, to shut out the fearful scene, while Henrich spoke to her
words of comfort and encouragement, and at length succeeded in calming
her agitation. The rain poured down in torrents but so dense was the
foliage that hung over Oriana and her companion that it could not
penetrate their place of refuge; and they remained awaiting its
cessation, and watching the curling smoke, that seemed to die away as
the falling torrent extinguished the fire. But as it disappeared,
another cloud arose near the same spot; and wider and fiercer flames
sprang up, that defied the rain, and continued to burn with more and
more strength. Whence could they arise? Surely the wigwams were on
fire!

Henrich communicated this fear to Oriana, and they arose and hurried
together towards the village, where an appalling scene met their eyes.
In front of Terah's dwelling were the smoldering remains of the
sacrificial fire, on which--still upheld by the stake to which he had
been bound--the burnt and, blackened form of a man was visible; while
close by the ashes lay a woman, so motionless that she seemed as
totally deprived of life as the wretched victim himself, and a child
was reclining on her shoulder, whose faint wailing cry showed that it
yet lived and suffered.

None heeded the melancholy group; for the warriors, whose wild songs
and frantic dances had been interrupted by the sudden violence of the
storm, were all now engaged in fruitless efforts to extinguish the
flames that were rapidly consuming the lodge of Terah. The lightning
had struck it, and ignited its roof of reeds; and so rapidly had the
whole dwelling become a prey to the dreadful element, that even the
removal of the dying sage had been despaired of. But Jyanough, who had
been a silent spectator of all the previous scene of cruelty, was not
to be daunted by the smoke and flame that burst through the entrance,
and drove from the chamber of death all the attendants of the sufferer.
Boldly he rushed into Terah's dwelling; and, just as Henrich and Oriana
entered the open space in front of it, they beheld him issuing forth,
blackened with smoke and scorched with fire, and bending beneath the
weight of his uncle's corpse.

Yes; Terah was already a corpse! All the