Chapter 33

--No leave take I; for I will ride
As far as land will let me, by your side.
--Shakspeare.

The passage of the Pawnee to his village was interrupted by no scene
of violence. His vengeance had been as complete as it was summary. Not
even a solitary scout of the Siouxes was left on the hunting grounds
he was obliged to traverse, and of course the journey of Middleton's
party was as peaceful as if made in the bosom of the States. The
marches were timed to meet the weakness of the females. In short, the
victors seemed to have lost every trace of ferocity with their
success, and appeared disposed to consult the most trifling of the
wants of that engrossing people, who were daily encroaching on their
rights, and reducing the Red-men of the west, from their state of
proud independence to the condition of fugitives and wanderers.

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. The presence of this force, small as it was, removed every
shadow of uneasiness from his mind. It made him master of his
movements, gave him dignity and importance in the eyes of his new
friends, and would enable him to overcome the difficulties of the wide
region which still lay between the village of the Pawnees and the
nearest fortress of his countrymen. A lodge was yielded to the
exclusive possession of Inez and Ellen; and even Paul, when he saw an
armed sentinel in the uniform of the States, pacing before its
entrance, was content to stray among the dwellings of the "Red-skins,"
prying with but little reserve into their domestic economy, commenting
sometimes jocularly, sometimes gravely, and always freely, on their
different expedients, or