A single glance informed me that it was English.

For the present I was insensible to all motives that would command me to forbear.

I seized the paper with an intention to peruse it.
At that moment a stunning report was heard.

It was loud enough to shake the walls of the apartment, and abrupt enough to throw me into tremors.
I dropped the book and yielded for a moment to confusion and surprise.
From what quarter it came, I was unable accurately to determine; but there could be no doubt, from its loudness, that it was near, and even in the house.

It was no less manifest that the sound arose from the discharge of a pistol.