Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1892-09-05

it were, and perhaps actually under the
influence Of a species Of somnambulism,
Mr.. Dimmesdale reached the spot where,
now so long since, Hester Prynne had
lived through her first hours OF public
ignominy. The same platform or scat
fold, black and weather stained with
the storm and sunshine Of seven long
years, and footworn, too, with the tread
Of many culprits who had since assembled
it, remained standing beneath the bal
cony Of the meeting house. The minis
ter went up the steps,
1t was an obscure night Of early May
An UNMARRIED pail Of cloud muflied the
whole expanse Of sky from zenith TO
horizon. If the same multitude which
had stood as eyewitnesses while Hester
Prynne sustained her punishment could
now have been summoned forth, they
would have discerned no face above the
platform, nor hardly the outline Of
human shape, in the dark gray Of the
midnight. But the town was all asleep
There was no peril of discovery. The
minister might stand there, if ii so
pleased him, until morning should red
den in the east, without other risk than
that the dank and chill night air would
creep into his frame, and stiffen his
joints with rheumatism, and clog his
throat with catarrh and cough, thereby
defrauding the expectant audience Of
tomorrow's prayer and sermon No eye
could see him, save that ever wakeful
one which had seen him in his closet
welding the bloody scourge. Why,
then, had he come hither? Was It but
the mocSery Of penitence? "A mockery.
indeed, but in which his soul trihed with
ITSELF A mockery at which angels
blushed and wept, while fends rejoiced
with jeering laughter.
He had been driven hither by the inn
pulse of that Remorse which logged him
everywhere, and whose own sister and
closely linked companion was that Cow
ardice which invariably drew him back,
with her tremulous grippe, just when the
other impulse had hurried him to the
verge Of a disclosure. Poor, miserable
mani what right had inhrmity like his
for the iron neryed, who have their
choice either to endure it, or, If it press
too hard, to exert their fierce and savage
strength for a good purpose and fling it
off at oncel This feeble and most sensi-
tive of spirits could do neither, yet CON
tinually did one thing or another, which
! intertwined in the same inextricable
knot the agony of heaven defying guilt
and vain repentance.
And thus, while standing on the scat
fold. in this vain show Of expiration, Mr.
! Dimmesdale was overcome with great
horror Of mind, as if the universe were
4 gazing at a scarlet token on his naked
breast, right over his heart. On that
spot, in very truth, there was and there
had long been the gnawing and poison
GUS tooth Of bodily pain. Without any
effort Of his viii or power to restrain
himself he shrieked aloud, an cutlery
that went pealing through the night,
and was beaten back from one house to
another and reverberated from the hills
in the background as If a company Of
devils, detecting so much misery and
terror in it, had made a plaything of the
sound and were bandying it to and fro.
1T is done' muttered the minister
covering his face with his hands "The
whole town viii awake and hurry forth
and find me herew
But it was not So The shrek had
perhaps sounded with a far greater
power to his own startled ears than il
actually possessed. The town did not
awake, or if it did the drowsy slumber-
ers mistook the cry either for something
frightful in a dream or for the noise OF
witches, whose voices at that period
were often heard TO pass over the settle.
ments or lonely cottages as they rode
with satan through the air. The clergy
man. therefore. hearing no symptoms Of
disturbance, uncovered his eyes and
looked about him.
His eyes, however, were soon greeted
by little, glimmering light, which, al
first a long way off, was approaching NJ
the street. 1t threw a CLEAN Of recogni
ton on here post and there a garden
fence, and here latticed window pane
and there a pump with its full trough
of water, and here, again, an arched
door Of oak, with an iron knocker and q
rough log for the doorstep. The Reverend
Mr. Dimmesdale noted all these minut,
particulars, even while firmly convinced
that the doom of his existence was steal
ing onward in the footsteps which he now
heard, and that the CLEAN Of the Lantern
would fall upon him in few moments
more and reveal his long hidden secret
As the light drew nearer he behelC
within its illuminated circle his brother
clergyman-or, to speak more accurately
his professional father as well as highll
valued friend-the Reverend Mr.. Will
son, who, as Mr. Dimmesdale now con
jectured, had been praying at the bed
side Of some dying man. And so h
had.
The good old minister carno freshly
from the death chamber Of Goyerno
Winthrop, who had passed from eartl
to heaven within that very hour. An,
now surrounded, like the saintlike per
sonages Of olden times, with a radian
halo, that glorihed him amid this gloom,
night of sin--as if the departed governo
had left him an inheritance of his glory
OF as if he had caught upon himself tn