Unable to restrain their fury, the women broke into the circle in a body, and commenced their attack by loading the captive with the most bitter revilings.

They boasted of the various exploits, which their sons had achieved at the expense of the different tribes of the Pawnees.
They undervalued his own reputation, and told him to look at Mahtoree, if he had never yet seen a warrior.

They accused him of having been suckled by a doe, and of having drunk in cowardice with his mother's milk.

In short, they lavished upon their unmoved captive a torrent of that vindictive abuse, in which the women of the savages are so well known to excel, but which has been too often described to need a repetition here.
The effect of this outbreaking was inevitable.

Le Balafre turned away disappointed, and hid himself in the crowd, while the trapper, whose honest features were working with inward emotion, pressed nigher to his young friend, as those who are linked to the criminal, by ties so strong as to brave the opinions of men, are often seen to stand about the place of execution to support his dying moments.