-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Натаниэль Хоторн
-
- Алая буква
-
- Стр. 6/92
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
"
Of
a
truth
,
friend
,
that
matter
remaineth
a
riddle
;
and
the
Daniel
who
shall
expound
it
is
yet
a-wanting
,
"
answered
the
townsman
.
"
Madame
Hester
absolutely
refuseth
to
speak
,
and
the
magistrates
have
laid
their
heads
together
in
vain
.
Peradventure
the
guilty
one
stands
looking
on
at
this
sad
spectacle
,
unknown
of
man
,
and
forgetting
that
God
sees
him
.
"
"
The
learned
man
,
"
observed
the
stranger
with
another
smile
,
"
should
come
himself
to
look
into
the
mystery
.
"
"
It
behoves
him
well
if
he
be
still
in
life
,
"
responded
the
townsman
.
"
Now
,
good
Sir
,
our
Massachusetts
magistracy
,
bethinking
themselves
that
this
woman
is
youthful
and
fair
,
and
doubtless
was
strongly
tempted
to
her
fall
,
and
that
,
moreover
,
as
is
most
likely
,
her
husband
may
be
at
the
bottom
of
the
sea
,
they
have
not
been
bold
to
put
in
force
the
extremity
of
our
righteous
law
against
her
.
The
penalty
thereof
is
death
.
But
in
their
great
mercy
and
tenderness
of
heart
they
have
doomed
Mistress
Prynne
to
stand
only
a
space
of
three
hours
on
the
platform
of
the
pillory
,
and
then
and
thereafter
,
for
the
remainder
of
her
natural
life
to
wear
a
mark
of
shame
upon
her
bosom
.
"
"
A
wise
sentence
,
"
remarked
the
stranger
,
gravely
,
bowing
his
head
.
"
Thus
she
will
be
a
living
sermon
against
sin
,
until
the
ignominious
letter
be
engraved
upon
her
tombstone
.
It
irks
me
,
nevertheless
,
that
the
partner
of
her
iniquity
should
not
at
least
,
stand
on
the
scaffold
by
her
side
.
But
he
will
be
known
--
he
will
be
known
!
--
he
will
be
known
!
"
He
bowed
courteously
to
the
communicative
townsman
,
and
whispering
a
few
words
to
his
Indian
attendant
,
they
both
made
their
way
through
the
crowd
.
While
this
passed
,
Hester
Prynne
had
been
standing
on
her
pedestal
,
still
with
a
fixed
gaze
towards
the
stranger
--
so
fixed
a
gaze
that
,
at
moments
of
intense
absorption
,
all
other
objects
in
the
visible
world
seemed
to
vanish
,
leaving
only
him
and
her
.
Such
an
interview
,
perhaps
,
would
have
been
more
terrible
than
even
to
meet
him
as
she
now
did
,
with
the
hot
mid-day
sun
burning
down
upon
her
face
,
and
lighting
up
its
shame
;
with
the
scarlet
token
of
infamy
on
her
breast
;
with
the
sin-born
infant
in
her
arms
;
with
a
whole
people
,
drawn
forth
as
to
a
festival
,
staring
at
the
features
that
should
have
been
seen
only
in
the
quiet
gleam
of
the
fireside
,
in
the
happy
shadow
of
a
home
,
or
beneath
a
matronly
veil
at
church
.
Dreadful
as
it
was
,
she
was
conscious
of
a
shelter
in
the
presence
of
these
thousand
witnesses
.
It
was
better
to
stand
thus
,
with
so
many
betwixt
him
and
her
,
than
to
greet
him
face
to
face
--
they
two
alone
.
She
fled
for
refuge
,
as
it
were
,
to
the
public
exposure
,
and
dreaded
the
moment
when
its
protection
should
be
withdrawn
from
her
.
Involved
in
these
thoughts
,
she
scarcely
heard
a
voice
behind
her
until
it
had
repeated
her
name
more
than
once
,
in
a
loud
and
solemn
tone
,
audible
to
the
whole
multitude
.
"
Hearken
unto
me
,
Hester
Prynne
!
"
said
the
voice
.
It
has
already
been
noticed
that
directly
over
the
platform
on
which
Hester
Prynne
stood
was
a
kind
of
balcony
,
or
open
gallery
,
appended
to
the
meeting-house
.
It
was
the
place
whence
proclamations
were
wont
to
be
made
,
amidst
an
assemblage
of
the
magistracy
,
with
all
the
ceremonial
that
attended
such
public
observances
in
those
days
.
Here
,
to
witness
the
scene
which
we
are
describing
,
sat
Governor
Bellingham
himself
with
four
sergeants
about
his
chair
,
bearing
halberds
,
as
a
guard
of
honour
.
He
wore
a
dark
feather
in
his
hat
,
a
border
of
embroidery
on
his
cloak
,
and
a
black
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
were
,
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
he
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
warmer
heart
of
the
multitude
;
for
,
as
she
lifted
her
eyes
towards
the
balcony
,
the
unhappy
woman
grew
pale
,
and
trembled
.
