The Siouxes had succeeded in forcing themselves
into a thick growth of rank grass, where the horses of their enemies
could not enter, or where, when entered, they were worse than useless.
It became necessary to dislodge the Tetons from this cover, or the
object of the combat must be abandoned. Several desperate efforts had
been repulsed, and the disheartened Pawnees were beginning to think of
a retreat, when the well-known war-cry of Hard-Heart was heard at
hand, and at the next instant the chief appeared in their centre,
flourishing the scalp of the Great Sioux, as a banner that would lead
to victory.
He was greeted by a shout of delight, and followed into the cover,
with an impetuosity that, for the moment, drove all before it. But the
bloody trophy in the hand of the partisan served as an incentive to
the attacked, as well as to the assailants. Mahtoree had left many a
daring brave behind him in his band, and the orator, who in the
debates of that day had manifested such pacific thoughts, now
exhibited the most generous self-devotion, in order to wrest the
memorial of a man he had never loved, from the hands of the avowed
enemies of his people.
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