Our limits will not permit a detail of the triumphal entry of the
conquerors. The exultation of the tribe was proportioned to its
previous despondency. Mothers boasted of the honourable deaths of
their sons; wives proclaimed the honour and pointed to the scars of
their husbands, and Indian girls rewarded the young braves with songs
of triumph. The trophies of their fallen enemies were exhibited, as
conquered standards are displayed in more civilised regions. The deeds
of former warriors were recounted by the aged men, and declared to be
eclipsed by the glory of this victory. While Hard-Heart himself, so
distinguished for his exploits from boyhood to that hour, was
unanimously proclaimed and re-proclaimed the worthiest chief and the
stoutest brave that the Wahcondah had ever bestowed on his most
favoured children, the Pawnees of the Loup.
Notwithstanding the comparative security in which Middleton found his
recovered treasure, he was not sorry to see his faithful and sturdy
artillerists standing among the throng, as he entered in the wild
train, and lifting their voices, in a martial shout, to greet his
return.
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