I noted at once that in the few hours during which she was absent, her knowledge of the Orofenan tongue seemed to have improved greatly as though she had drunk deeply from some hidden fount of memory.

Now she spoke it with readiness, as Oro had done when he addressed the sorcerers, although many of the words she used were not known to me, and the general form of her language appeared archaic, as for instance that of Spenser is compared with modern English.

When she saw I did not comprehend her, however, she would stop and cast her sentences in a different shape, till at length I caught her meaning.

Now I give the substance of what she said.
"You are safe," she began, glancing first at the palm ropes that lay upon the rock and then at my wrists, one of which was cut.
"Yes, Lady Yva, thanks to your father." "You should say thanks to me.

My father was thinking of other things, but I was thinking of you strangers, and from where I was I saw those wicked ones coming to kill you." "Oh! from the top of the mountain, I suppose." She shook her head and smiled but vouchsafed no further explanation, unless her following words can be so called.