The outcry was
excited by a sudden change in the air of Hard-Heart. When the old men
turned towards the youth, they saw him standing in the very centre of
the ring, with his head erect, his eye fixed on vacancy, one leg
advanced and an arm a little raised, as if all his faculties were
absorbed in the act of listening. A smile lighted his countenance, for
a single moment, and then the whole man sunk again into his former
look of dignity and coldness, suddenly recalled to self-possession.
The movement had been construed into contempt, and even the tempers of
the chiefs began to be excited. Unable to restrain their fury, the
women broke into the circle in a body, and commenced their attack by
loading the captive with the most bitter revilings. They boasted of
the various exploits, which their sons had achieved at the expense of
the different tribes of the Pawnees. They undervalued his own
reputation, and told him to look at Mahtoree, if he had never yet seen
a warrior. They accused him of having been suckled by a doe, and of
having drunk in cowardice with his mother's milk.
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