An ear of great acuteness might possibly have detected that the tones of the orator faltered a little, as his flashing look first fell on this unexpected object, though the change was so trifling, that none, but such as thoroughly knew the parties, would have suspected it.
The stranger had once been as distinguished for his beauty and proportions, as had been his eagle eye for its irresistible and terrible glance.
But his skin was now wrinkled, and his features furrowed with so many scars, as to have obtained for him, half a century before, from the French of the Canadas, a title which has been borne by so many of the heroes of France, and which had now been adopted into the language of the wild horde of whom we are writing, as the one most expressive of the deeds of their own brave.
The murmur of Le Balafre, that ran through the assembly when he appeared, announced not only his name and the high estimation of his character, but how extraordinary his visit was considered.
As he neither spoke nor moved, however, the sensation created by his appearance soon subsided, and then every eye was again turned upon the speaker, and every ear once more drunk in the intoxication of his maddening appeals.
It would have been easy to have traced the triumph of Mahtoree, in the reflecting countenances of his auditors.
It was not long before a look of ferocity and of revenge was to be seen seated on the grim visages of most of the warriors, and each new and crafty allusion to the policy of extinguishing their enemies, was followed by fresh and less restrained bursts of approbation.
In the height of this success the Teton closed his speech, by a rapid appeal to the pride and hardihood of his native band, and suddenly took his seat.
In the midst of the murmurs of applause, which succeeded so remarkable an effort of eloquence, a low, feeble and hollow voice was heard rising on the ear, as if it rolled from the inmost cavities of the human chest, and gathered strength and energy as it issued into the air.
A solemn stillness followed the sounds, and then the lips of the aged man were first seen to move.
“The day of Le Balafre is near its end,” were the first words that were distinctly audible. “He is like a buffaloe, on whom the hair will grow no longer.
He will soon be ready to leave his lodge, to go in search of another, that is far from the villages of the Siouxes; therefore, what he has to say concerns not him, but those he leaves behind him.
His words are like the fruit on the tree, ripe and fit to be given to chiefs.
“Many snows have fallen since Le Balafre has been found on the war-path.
His blood has been very hot, but it has had time to cool.
The Wahcondah gives him dreams of war no longer; he sees that it is better to live in peace.
“My brothers, one foot is turned to the happy hunting-grounds, the other will soon follow, and then an old chief will be seen looking for the prints of his father’s moccasins, that he may make no mistake, but be sure to come before the Master of Life, by the same path, as so many good Indians have already travelled.
But who will follow?
Le Balafre has no son.
His oldest has ridden too many Pawnee horses; the bones of the youngest have been gnawed by Konza dogs!
Le Balafre has come to look for a young arm, on which he may lean, and to find a son, that when he is gone his lodge may not be empty.
Tachechana, the skipping fawn of the Tetons, is too weak, to prop a warrior, who is old.
She looks before her and not backwards.
Her mind is in the lodge of her husband.”
The enunciation of the veteran warrior had been calm, but distinct, and decided.
His declaration was received in silence; and though several of the chiefs, who were in the counsels of Mahtoree, turned their eyes on their leader, none presumed to oppose so aged and so venerated a brave, in a resolution that was strictly in conformity to the usages of the nation.
The Teton himself was content to await the result with seeming composure, though the gleams of ferocity, that played about his eye, occasionally betrayed the nature of those feelings, with which he witnessed a procedure, that was likely to rob him of that one of all his intended victims whom he most hated.
In the mean time Le Balafre moved with a slow and painful step towards the captives.
He stopped before the person of Hard-Heart, whose faultless form, unchanging eye, and lofty mien, he contemplated long, with high and evident satisfaction.
Then making a gesture of authority, he awaited, until his order had been obeyed, and the youth was released from the post and his bonds, by the same blow of the knife.
When the young warrior was led nearer to his dimmed and failing sight, the examination was renewed, with strictness of scrutiny, and that admiration, which physical excellence is so apt to excite in the breast of a savage.
“It is good,” the wary veteran murmured, when he found that all his skill in the requisites of a brave could detect no blemish; “this is a leaping panther!
Does my son speak with the tongue of a Teton?”
The intelligence, which lighted the eyes of the captive, betrayed how well he understood the question, but still he was far too haughty to communicate his ideas through the medium of a language that belonged to a hostile people.
Some of the surrounding warriors explained to the old chief, that the captive was a Pawnee-Loup.
“My son opened his eyes on the ‘waters of the wolves,’” said Le Balafre, in the language of that nation, “but he will shut them in the bend of the ‘river with a troubled stream.’
He was born a Pawnee, but he will die a Dahcotah.
Look at me.
I am a sycamore, that once covered many with my shadow.
The leaves are fallen, and the branches begin to drop.
But a single sucker is springing from my roots; it is a little vine, and it winds itself about a tree that is green.
I have long looked for one fit to grow by my side.
Now have I found him.
Le Balafre is no longer without a son; his name will not be forgotten when he is gone!
Men of the Tetons, I take this youth into my lodge.”
No one was bold enough to dispute a right, that had so often been exercised by warriors far inferior to the present speaker, and the adoption was listened to, in grave and respectful silence.
Le Balafre took his intended son by the arm, and leading him into the very centre of the circle, he stepped aside with an air of triumph, in order that the spectators might approve of his choice.
Mahtoree betrayed no evidence of his intentions, but rather seemed to await a moment better suited to the crafty policy of his character.
The more experienced and sagacious chiefs distinctly foresaw the utter impossibility of two partisans so renowned, so hostile, and who had so long been rivals in fame, as their prisoner and their native leader, existing amicably in the same tribe.
Still the character of Le Balafre was so imposing, and the custom to which he had resorted so sacred, that none dared to lift a voice in opposition to the measure.