But there stood one in the midst of
you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!"
It seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the
remainder of his secret undisclosed. But he fought back the
bodily weakness--and, still more, the faintness of heart--that
was striving for the mastery with him. He threw off all
assistance, and stepped passionately forward a pace before the
woman and the children.
"It was on him!" he continued, with a kind of fierceness; so
determined was he to speak out the whole. "God's eye beheld it!
The angels were for ever pointing at it! (The Devil knew it
well, and fretted it continually with the touch of his burning
finger!) But he hid it cunningly from men, and walked among you
with the mien of a spirit, mournful, because so pure in a sinful
world!--and sad, because he missed his heavenly kindred! Now, at
the death-hour, he stands up before you! He bids you look again
at Hester's scarlet letter! He tells you, that, with all its
mysterious horror, it is but the shadow of what he bears on his
own breast, and that even this, his own red stigma, is no more
than the type of what has seared his inmost heart! Stand any
here that question God's judgment on a sinner! Behold! Behold,
a dreadful witness of it!"
With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from
before his breast.
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