Charles' Gould's silence, like a "fortress," is part of Nostromo's theme in which speech is equivalent to military power. His silence, which has an exaggerated flabbergasting effect on the provincial authority in the following paragraphs, represents his desire not to rule in any personal sense. As the apostle of material interests he sublimates himself totally to the victory of the inanimate ideal without any thought or wish for personal glory -- a kind of abstract, impersonal conqueror which the provincial authority cannot understand.