The Scarlet Letter

So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the

scarlet letter. And, after many, many years, a new grave was

delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial-ground beside

which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old

and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of

the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tomb-stone

served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with

armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate--as the

curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with

the purport--there appeared the semblance of an engraved

escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald's wording of which may

serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded

legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing

point of light gloomier than the shadow:-"ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES"