I saw that, dangerous as action might be, we must act or be
lost, so as the first man came bounding along -- and a great
tall fellow he was -- I sent a heavy revolver ball through him,
and down he fell at the mouth of the shaft, and slid, shrieking
frantically, into the fiery gulf that had been prepared for us.
Whether it was his cries, or the, to them, awful sound and effect
of the pistol shot, or what, I know not, but the other priests
halted, paralysed and dismayed, and before they could come on
again Sorais had called out something, and we, together with
the two Queens and most of the courtiers, were being surrounded
with a wall of armed men. In a moment it was done, and still
the priests hesitated, and the people hung in the balance like
a herd of startled buck as it were, making no sign one way or
the other.
The last yell of the burning priest had died away, the fire had
finished him, and a great silence fell upon the place.
Then the High Priest Agon turned, and his face was as the face
of a devil. 'Let the sacrifice be sacrificed,' he cried to the
Queens. 'Has not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers,
and would ye, as Queens, throw the cloak of your majesty over
evildoers? Are not the creatures sacred to the Sun dead? And
is not a priest of the Sun also dead, but now slain by the magic
of these strangers, who come as the winds out of heaven, whence
we know not, and who are what we know not? Beware, oh Queens,
how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God, even before
His high altar! There is a Power that is more than your power;
there is a Justice that is higher than your justice.
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