It summoned him
onward--inward to the festival!--but here he made a pause.
Bellingham, for the last few moments, had kept an anxious eye
upon him. He now left his own place in the procession, and
advanced to give assistance judging, from Mr. Dimmesdale's
aspect that he must otherwise inevitably fall. But there was
something in the latter's expression that warned back the
magistrate, although a man not readily obeying the vague
intimations that pass from one spirit to another. The crowd,
meanwhile, looked on with awe and wonder. This earthly
faintness, was, in their view, only another phase of the
minister's celestial strength; nor would it have seemed a
miracle too high to be wrought for one so holy, had he ascended
before their eyes, waxing dimmer and brighter, and fading at
last into the light of heaven!
He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms.
"Hester," said he, "come hither! Come, my little Pearl!"
It was a ghastly look with which he regarded them; but there was
something at once tender and strangely triumphant in it. The
child, with the bird-like motion, which was one of her
characteristics, flew to him, and clasped her arms about his
knees.
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