Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-04-23

know, was the wife of a certain learned
man, English by birth, but who had
long dwelt in Amsterdam, whence,
some good time agone, he was minded
to cross over and cast in his lot with rs
of the Massachusetts,. To this purpose
he sent his wife before him, remaining
himself to look after some necessary af-
fairs. Marry, good sir. in some two
years or less, that the woman has been
dweller here in Boston, no tidings
have come of this learned gentleman,
Master Prynne, and his young wife,
look you, being left to her own mis-
guidance
"Ah.-ahai-I conceive your Said the
stranger, with bitter smile. so learned
a man as you speak Of should have
learned this, too, in his bos5& And
who, by your favor, sir, may be the "a
Their of yonder babe-it is some three or
four months old, should judge-which
Mistress Prynne is holding in her arms?"
..of a truth, friend. that matter re-
maineth riddle; and the Daniel who
shall expound it is yet a-wanting,y an
swered the townsman. Madam Hester
absolutely refuseth to speak and the
magistrates have laid their heads to-
gether in vain. Peradventure. the
guilty one stands looking on at this sad
spectacle. unknown Of man, and forget
ting that God sees him."
"The learned man." observed the
stranger, with another smile, SHOULD
come himself to look into the mystery"
at behooves him well. if he be still
in ife," responded the townsman.
Nov, good sir, our Massachusetts
magistracy, bethinking themselves that
this woman is youthful and fair, and
doubtless was strongly tempted to her
fall, and that, moreover, as is most
likely, her husband may be at the bot
tom of the sea, they have not been bold
to put in force the extremity of our
righteous law against her. The penalty
thereof is death. But in their great
mercy and tenderness of heart they have
doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a
space of three hours ON the platform OF
the pillory and then and thereafter, for
the remainder of her natural life, to
wear q mark of shame upon her bosom"
"a wise sentence" remarked the
stranger, gravely bowling his head
"Thus she will be living sermon
against sin until the ignominious letter
be engraved upon her tombstone. 1t
inks me, nevertheless, that the partner
of her iniquity should not, at least, stand
on the scaffold by her side. But he will
be known-he will be known-he will
be knownl"
He bowed courteously to the COM
municative townsman and, whispering
few words to his Indian attendant,
they both made their way through the
crowd
While this passed, Hester Prynne had
been standing on her pedestal still with
fixed gaze toward the stranger; so
fixed gaze that at moments OF intense
absorption all other objects in the WISH
BILE world seemed to vanish, leaving only
him and her. Such an interview per-
haps would have been more terrible than
even to meet him as she now did, with
the hot, midday sun burning down upon
her face and lighting up its shame;
with the scarlet token of infamy on her
breast; with the sin born infant in her
arms; with whole people, drawn forth
as to festival, staring at the features
that should have been seen only in the
quiet CLEAN of the fireside, in the happy
shadow of home or beneath a matron-
ly veil at church. Dreadful as it was,
slte was conscious Of q shelter in the
5reacnce NJ these thousand witnesses.
it was better to stand thus, with 30
many betwixt him and her, than to greet
him face to face, they two alone. She
fed for refuge, as it were, to the public
its protection should be withdrawn from
her Involved in these thoughts, she
scarcely heard voice behind her until
it had repeated her name more than
once in loud and solemn tone, audible
to the whole multitude.
"Hearken unto me, Hester Prynnep
said the voice.
1t has already been noticed that direct
ly over the platform on which Hester
Prynne stood was kind Of balcony or
open gallery appended to the meeting
house. 1t was the place whence procla-
nations were wont to be made, amid
an assemblage of the magistracy, with
all the ceremonial that attended such
public observances in those days. Here,
to witness the scene which we are de-
scribing, sat Governor Bellingham him
self, with four sergeants about his chair,
bearing halberds, as guard of honor.
He wore dark feather in his hat, o bor-
der Of embroidery ON his cloak and a
black velvet tunic beneath--a gentleman
advanced in years with hard expert
ence written in his wrinkles. He was
not i'll fitted to be the head and repre-
sentative of community which owed its
origin and progress and its present state
of development, not to the impulses Of
youth, but to the stern and tempered en-
ergies of manhood and the somber sa-
gacity of age, accomplishing SO much
precisely because it imagined and hoped
so little
The other eminent characters, by
whom the chief ruler was surrounded.
were distinguished by dignity Of
mien, belonging to period when the
forms of authority were felt to possess
the sacredness Of divine institutions.
They We're, doubtless, good men, just
and sage. But, out Of the whole hui
man family, it would not have been
easy to select the same number Of wise
and yirtuous persons who should be lesa
capable of sitting in judgment on an
erring woman's heart and disentangliDg
its mesh Of good and evil than the sages
Of rigid aspect toward whom Hester
Prynne now turned her face. She seemed
conscious, indeed, that whatever SYM
pathy she might expect lay in the larger
and warmer heart Of the multitude; for
as she lifted her eyes toward the balcony
the unhappy woman grew pale and
trembled.
The voice which had called her atten-
ton was that of the reverend and ia
nous John Wilson, the eldest clergy
man Of Boston, great scholar, like
most Of his contemporaries in the pro-
fession, and withal man Of kind and
genial spirit. This last attribute, how
ever, had been less carefully developed
than his intellectual gifts, and was, in
truth, rather matter Of shame than
self congratulation with him There be
stood, with a border Of grizzled locks
beneath his skull cap; while his gray
eyes, accustomed TO the shaded light Of
his study, were winking, like those Of
Hester's infant, in the unadulterated