It  was  the  place  whence  proclamations  were  wont  to  be
made,  amidst  an  assemblage  of  the  magistracy,  with  al


THE    RECOGNITION.  73

the  ceremonial  that  attended  such  public  observances  in
those  days.  Here,  to  witness  the  scene  which  we  arc
describing,  sat  Governor  Bellingham  himself,  with  foiL
sergeants  about  his  chair,  bearing  halberds,  as  a  guard  of
nonor.  He  wore  a  dark  feather  in  his  hat,  a  border  of
embroidery  on  his  cloak,  and  a  blacik  velvet  tunic  beneath;
a  gentleman  advanced  in  years,  with  a  hard  experience
written  in  his  wrinkles.  He  was  not  ill  fitted  to  be  the
head  and  representative  of  a  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
energies  of  manhood,  and  the  sombre  sagacity  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  a  dignity  of  mien,  belonging  to  a  period  when  the
forms  of  authority  were  felt  to  possess  the  sacredness  of
Divine  institutions.  They  \vere,  doubtless,  good  men,
•just,  and  sage.  But,  out  of  the  whole  human  family,  it
would  not  have  been  easy  to  select  the  same  number  of
wise  and  virtuous  persons,  who  should  be  less  capable
of  sitting  in  judgment  on  an  erring  woman's  heart,  and
disentangling  its  mesh  of  good  and  evil,  than  the  sages
of  rigid  aspect  towards  whom  Hester  Prynne  now  turned
her  face.  She  seemed  conscious,  indeed,  that  whatever
sympathy  she  might  expect  lay  in  the  larger  and  warme*
heart  of  the  multitude ;  for,  as  she  lifted  her  eyes  towards
the  balcony,  the  unhappy  woman  grew  pale  and  trembled.
