THE PRISON DOOR
A throng of bearded men 0
, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats , inter-mixed with women 1
, some wearing hoods 2
, and others bareheaded 3
, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice 4
, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak , and studded with iron spikes .
The founders 6
of a new colony 5
, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they 6
might originally project , have invariably recognised it among their 6
earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery 7
, and another portion as the site of a prison 8
.
In accordance with this rule it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of
Boston 5
6 had built the first prison-house 8
somewhere in the Vicinity of
Cornhill 10
9 , almost as seasonably as they 6
marked out the first burial-ground 7
, on Isaac Johnson 11
's lot
12 , and round about his 11
grave , which subsequently became the nucleus of all the congregated sepulchres in the old churchyard of
King 's Chapel 13
7 .
Certain it is that , some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town 5
, the wooden jail 8
was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age , which gave a yet darker aspect to its 8
beetle-browed and gloomy front .
The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its 8
oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World 14
.
Like all that pertains to crime , it 8
seemed never to have known a youthful era .
Before this ugly edifice 8
, and between it 8
and the wheel-track of the street 15
, was a grass-plot , much overgrown with burdock , pig-weed , apple-pern , and such unsightly vegetation , which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilised society ,
a prison 8
16 .
But on one side of the portal , and rooted almost at the threshold , was a wild rose-bush , covered , in this month of June , with its delicate gems , which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner 17
as he 17
went in , and to the condemned criminal 17
as he 17
came forth to his 17
doom , in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him 17
.
This rose-bush , by a strange chance , has been kept alive in history ; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness 18
, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it , or whether , as there is fair authority for believing , it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson 19
as she 19
entered the prison-door , we 20
shall not take upon us 20
to determine .
Finding it so directly on the threshold of our 20
narrative , which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal , we 20
could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers , and present it to the reader .
It may serve , let us 20
hope , to symbolise some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track , or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow .
II .
THE MARKET-PLACE 21
The grass-plot before
the jail 8
, in
Prison Lane 15
16 , on a certain summer morning , not less than two centuries ago , was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of
Boston 5
22 , all with their 22
eyes intently fastened on the iron-clamped oaken door .
Amongst any other population , or at a later period in the history of New England 23
, the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these good people 22
would have augured some awful business in hand .
It could have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit 24
, on whom the sentence of a legal tribunal 25
had but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment .
But , in that early severity of the Puritan character , an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn .
It might be that a sluggish bond-servant 26
, or an undutiful child , whom
had given over to
the civil authority 29
27 , was to be corrected at the whipping-post .
It might be that an Antinomian 30
, a Quaker 31
, or other heterodox religionist 32
, was to be scourged out of the town 5
, or an idle or vagrant Indian , whom
the white man 34
's firewater had made riotous about
the streets 35
33 , was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest 36
.
It might be , too , that a witch 37
, like old Mistress Hibbins 38
, the bitter-tempered widow of
the magistrate 39
69 , was to die upon the gallows .
In either case , there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the spectators 22
, as befitted a people among whom religion and law were almost identical , and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused , that the mildest and severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful 22
.
Meagre , indeed , and cold , was the sympathy that a transgressor 40
might look for , from such bystanders 22
, at the scaffold .
On the other hand , a penalty which , in our 20
days , would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule , might then be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself .
It was a circumstance to be noted on the summer morning when our 20
story begins its course , that the women 41
, of whom there were several in the crowd , appeared to take a peculiar interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue .
The age had not so much refinement , that any sense of impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale 41
from stepping forth into the public ways , and wedging their 41
not unsubstantial persons
41 , if occasion were , into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution .
Morally , as well as materially , there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old English birth and breeding 41
than in their 41
fair descendants
42 , separated from them 41
by a series of six or seven generations 43
; for , throughout that chain of ancestry , every successive mother 44
had transmitted to a fainter bloom , a more delicate and briefer beauty , and a slighter physical frame , if not character of less force and solidity than her 44
own .
The women who were now standing about the prison-door 41
stood within less than half a century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth 46
had been the not altogether unsuitable representative of the sex .
They 41
were : and the beef and ale of , with a moral diet not a whit more refined , entered largely into their 41
composition .
The bright morning sun , therefore , shone on broad shoulders and well-developed busts , and on round and ruddy cheeks , that had ripened in the far-off island 47
, and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New England 23
.
There was , moreover , a boldness and rotundity of speech among these matrons 41
, as most of them 41
seemed to be , that would startle us 20
at the present day , whether in respect to its purport or its volume of tone .
" Goodwives 41
, " said a hard-featured dame of fifty 48
, " I 48
'll tell ye a piece of my 48
mind .
It would be greatly for the public behoof if we 41
women 41
, being of mature age and church-members 41
in good repute , should have the handling of such malefactresses as
this Hester Prynne 49
49 .
What think ye , gossips ?
If the hussy 49
stood up for judgment before us 41
five , that are now here in a knot together , would she 49
come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates 50
have awarded ?
Marry , I 48
trow not . "
" People 51
say , " said another 68
, " that the Reverend 52
Master Dimmesdale 52
, , takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon . "
" The magistrates 50
are God-fearing gentlemen 73
, but merciful overmuch -- that is a truth , " added a third autumnal matron 54
.
" At the very least , they 50
should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne 49
's forehead .
Madame Hester 49
would have winced at that , I 54
warrant me 54
.
But she 49
-- the naughty baggage 74
-- little will she 49
care what they 50
put upon the bodice of her 49
gown !
Why , look you 55
, she 49
may cover it with a brooch , or such like heathenish adornment , and so walk the streets 35
as brave as ever ! "
" Ah , but , " interposed , more softly , a young wife 56
, holding a child 57
by the hand , " let her 49
cover the mark as she 49
will , the pang of it will be always in her 49
heart . "
" What do we 41
talk of marks and brands , whether on the bodice of her 49
gown or the flesh of her 49
forehead ? "
cried another female 58
, the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of
these self-constituted judges 41
75 .
" This woman 49
has brought shame upon us 41
all , and ought to die ; is there not law for it ?
Truly there is , both in the Scripture and the statute-book .
Then let the magistrates , who have made it of no effect 50
, thank themselves 50
if and daughters 60
go astray . "
" Mercy on us 61
, goodwife 58
! "
exclaimed a man in the crowd 62
, " is there no virtue in woman 63
, save what springs from a wholesome fear of the gallows ?
That is the hardest word yet !
Hush now , gossips 41
for the lock is turning in the prison-door , and here comes Mistress Prynne 49
herself 49
. "
The door of the jail 8
being flung open from within there appeared , in the first place , like a black shadow emerging into sunshine , the grim and grisly presence of the town-beadle 64
, with a sword by his 64
side , and his 64
staff of office in his 64
hand .
This personage 64
prefigured and represented in his 64
aspect the whole dismal severity of the Puritanic code of law , which it was his 64
business to administer in its final and closest application to the offender 49
.
Stretching forth the official staff in his 64
left hand , he 64
laid his 64
right upon the shoulder of a young woman 49
, whom he 64
thus drew forward , until , on the threshold of the prison-door , she 49
repelled him 64
, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character , and stepped into the open air as if by her 49
own free will .
She 49
bore in her 49
arms a child 65
, a baby of some three months old 70
, who winked and turned aside its 65
little face from the too vivid light of day ; because its 65
existence , heretofore , had brought it 65
acquaintance only with the grey twilight of a dungeon 66
, or other darksome apartment 67
of the prison 8
.
When the young woman 49
-- the mother of
this child 65
71 -- stood fully revealed before the crowd , it seemed to be her 49
first impulse to clasp the infant 65
closely to her 49
bosom ; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection , as that she 49
might thereby conceal a certain token , which was wrought or fastened into her 49
dress .
In a moment , however , wisely judging that one token of her 49
shame would but poorly serve to hide another , she 49
took the baby 65
on her 49
arm , and with a burning blush , and yet a haughty smile , and a glance that would not be abashed , looked around at her 49
townspeople 22
and neighbours 22
.
On the breast of her 49
gown , in fine red cloth , surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread , appeared the letter A .
It was so artistically done , and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy , that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she 49
wore , and which was of a splendour in accordance with the taste of the age , but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony 5
.