I did not wait for him, but raising my rifle, discharged the second barrel full in his face.

He fell down a shattered, blackened heap, dead.
As the second report thundered out it drowned all other sounds, and was again followed by an awful silence.

I looked around.

Those on the pyramid--paupers and hags--had again flung themselves on their faces.
On the square below the whole multitude were on their knees, with their heads bowed down low.

The silence was more oppressive than before; it was appalling--it was tremendous! It seemed like the dread silence that precedes the more awful outburst of the hurricane when the storm is gathering up all its strength to burst with accumulated fury upon its doomed victim.
But there was no time to be lost in staring, and that interval was occupied by me in hastily reloading my rifle.