nd that took his scalp!"

In this strain the artful chief continued for many minutes, calling
those warriors by name, who were known to have met their deaths in
battle with the Pawnees, or in some of those lawless frays which so
often occurred between the Sioux bands and a class of white men, who
were but little removed from them in the qualities of civilisation. Time
was not given to reflect on the merits, or rather the demerits, of most
of the different individuals to whom he alluded, in consequence of the
rapid manner in which he ran over their names; but so cunningly did he
time his events, and so thrillingly did he make his appeals, aided as
they were by the power of his deep-toned and stirring voice, that each
of them struck an answering chord in the breast of some one of his
auditors.

It was in the midst of one of his highest flights of eloquence, that a
man, so aged as to walk with the greatest difficulty, entered the
very centre of the circle, and took his stand directly in front of the
speaker. 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