Chapter 21  THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY

BETIMES in the morning of the day on which the new Governor was to receive his office at the hands of the people, Hester Prynne and little Pearl came into the market-place. It was already thronged with the craftsmen and other plebeian inhabitants of the town, in considerable numbers; among whom, likewise, were many rough figures, whose attire of deer-skins marked them as belonging to some of the forest settlements, which surrounded the little metropolis of the colony.

On this public holiday, as on all other occasions, for seven years past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse grey cloth. Not more by its hue than by some indescribable peculiarity in its fashion, it had the effect of making her fade personally out of sight and outline; while, again, the scarlet letter brought her back from this twilight indistinctness, and revealed her under the moral aspect of its own illumination. Her face, so long familiar to the townspeople, showed the marble quietude which they were accustomed to behold there. It was like a mask; or, rather, like the frozen calmness of a dead woman's features; owing this dreary resemblance to the fact that Hester was actually dead, in respect to any claim of sympathy, and had departed out of the world with which she still seemed to mingle.

It might be, on this one day, that there was an expression unseen before, nor, indeed, vivid enough to be detected now; unless some preternaturally gifted observer should have first read the heart, and have afterwards sought a corresponding development in the countenance and mien. Such a spiritual seer might have conceived, that, after sustaining the gaze of the multitude through seven miserable years as a necessity, a penance, and something which it was a stern religion to endure, she now, for one last time more, encountered it freely and voluntarily, in order to convert what had so long been agony into a kind of triumph. "Look your last on the scarlet letter and its wearer!"- the people's victim and life-long bond-slave, as they fancied her, might say to them. "Yet a little while, and she will be beyond your reach! A few hours longer, and the deep, mysterious ocean will quench and hide for ever the symbol which ye have caused to burn upon her bosom!" Nor were it an inconsistency too improbable to be assigned to human nature, should we suppose a feeling of regret in Hester's mind, at the moment when she was about to win her freedom from the pain which had been thus deeply incorporated with her being. Might there not be an irresistible desire to quaff a last, long, breathless draught of the cup of wormwood and aloes, with which nearly all her years of womanhood had been perpetually flavoured? The wine of life, henceforth to be presented to her lips, must be indeed rich, delicious, and exhilarating, in its chased and golden beaker; or else leave an inevitable and weary languor, after the lees of bitterness wherewith she had been drugged, as with a cordial of intensest potency.

Pearl was decked out with airy gaiety. It would have been impossible to guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed its existence to the shape of gloomy grey; or that a fancy, at once so gorgeous and so delicate as must have been requisite to contrive the child's apparel, was the same that had achieved a task perhaps more difficult, in imparting so distinct a peculiarity to Hester's simple robe. The dress, so proper was it to little Pearl, seemed an effluence, or inevitable development and outward manifestation of her character, no more to be separated from her than the many-hued brilliancy from a butterfly's wing, or the painted glory from the leaf of a bright flower. As with these, so with the child; her garb was all of one idea with her nature. On this eventful day, moreover, there was a certain singular inquietude and excitement in her mood, resembling nothing so much as the shimmer of a diamond, that sparkles and flashes with the varied throbbings of the breast on which it is displayed. Children have always a sympathy in the agitations of those connected with them; always, especially, a sense of any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind, in domestic circumstances; and therefore Pearl, who was the gem on her mother's unquiet bosom, betrayed, by the very dance of her spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble passiveness of Hester's brow.

This effervescence made her flit with a birdlike movement, rather than walk by her mother's side. She broke continually into shouts of a wild, inarticulate, and sometimes piercing music. When they reached the market-place, she became still more restless, on perceiving the stir and bustle that enlivened the spot; for it was usually more like the broad and lonesome green before a village meetinghouse, than the centre of a town's business.

"Why, what is this, mother?" cried she. "Wherefore have all the people left their work to-day? Is it a play-day for the whole world? See, there is the blacksmith! He has washed his sooty face, and put on his Sabbath-day clothes, and looks as if he would gladly be merry, if any kind body would only teach him how! And there is Master Brackett, the old jailer, nodding and smiling at me. Why does he do so, mother?"

"He remembers thee a little babe, my child," answered Hester.

"He should not nod and smile at me for all that- the black, grim, ugly-eyed old man!" said Pearl. "He may nod at thee, if he will; for thou art clad in grey, and wearest the scarlet letter. But see, mother, how many faces of strange people, and Indians among them, and sailors! What have they all come to do, here in the market-place?"

"They wait to see the procession pass," said Hester. "For the Governor and the magistrates are to go by, and the ministers, and all the great people and good people, with the music and the soldiers marching before them."

"And will the minister be there?" asked Pearl. "And will he hold out both his hands to me, as when thou ledst me to him from the brook-side?"

"He will be there, child," answered her mother. "But he will not greet thee to-day; nor must thou greet him."

"What a strange, sad man is he!" said the child, as if speaking partly to herself. "In the dark night-time he calls us to him, and holds thy hand and mine, as when we stood with him on the scaffold yonder! And in the deep forest, where only the old trees can hear, and the strip of sky see it, he talks with thee, sitting on a heap of moss! And he kisses my forehead, too, so that the little brook would hardly wash it off! But here, in the sunny day, and among all the people, he knows us not; nor must we know him! A strange, sad man is he, with his hand always over his heart!"

"Be quiet, Pearl! Thou understandest not these things," said her mother. "Think not now of the minister, but look about thee, and see how cheery is everybody's face to-day. The children have come from their schools, and the grown people from their workshops and their fields, on purpose to be happy. For, to-day, a new man is beginning to rule over them; and so- as has been the custom of mankind ever since a nation was first gathered- they make merry and rejoice; as if a good and golden year were at length to pass over the poor old world!"

It was as Hester said, in regard to the unwonted jollity that brightened the faces of the people. Into this festal season of the year- as it already was, and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries- the Puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity; thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday, they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general affliction.

But we perhaps exaggerate the grey or sable tinge, which undoubtedly characterised the mood and manners of the age. The persons now in the market-place of Boston had not been born to an inheritance of Puritanic gloom. They were native Englishmen, whose fathers had lived in the sunny richness of the Elizabethan epoch; a time when the life of England, viewed as one great mass, would appear to have been as stately, magnificent, and joyous, as the world has ever witnessed. Had they followed their hereditary taste, the New England settlers would have illustrated all events of public importance by bonfires, banquets, pageantries, and processions. Nor would it have been impracticable, in the observance of majestic ceremonies, to combine mirthful recreation with solemnity, and give, as it were, a grotesque and brilliant embroidery to the great robe of state, which a nation, at such festivals, puts on. There was some shadow of an attempt of this kind in the mode of celebrating the day on which the political year of the colony commenced. The dim reflection of a remembered splendour, a colourless and manifold diluted repetition of what they had beheld in proud old London- we will not say at a royal coronation, but at a Lord Mayor's show- might be traced in the customs which our forefathers instituted, with reference to the annual installation of magistrates. The fathers and founders of the commonwealth- the statesman, the priest, and the soldier- deemed it a duty then to assume the outward state and majesty, which, in accordance with antique style, was looked upon as the proper garb of public or social eminence. All came forth to move in procession before the people's eye, and thus impart a needed dignity to the simple framework of a government so newly constructed.

Then, too, the people were countenanced, if not encouraged, in relaxing the severe and close application to their various modes of rugged industry, which, at all other times, seemed of the same piece and material with their religion. Here, it is true, were none of the appliances which popular merriment would so readily have found in the England of Elizabeth's time, or that of James- no rude shows of a theatrical kind; no minstrel, with his harp and legendary ballad, nor gleeman, with an ape dancing to his music; no juggler, with his tricks of mimic witchcraft; no Merry Andrew, to stir up the multitude with jests, perhaps hundreds of years old, but still effective, by their appeals to the very broadest sources of mirthful sympathy. All such professors of the several branches of jocularity would have been sternly repressed, not only by the rigid discipline of law, but by the general sentiment which gives law its vitality. Not the less, however, the great, honest face of the people smiled-grimly, perhaps, but widely too. Nor were sports wanting, such as the colonists had witnessed, and shared in, long ago, at the country fairs and on the village-greens of England; and which it was thought well to keep alive on this new soil, for the sake of the courage and manliness that were essential in them. Wrestling-matches, in the different fashions of Cornwall and Devonshire, were seen here and there about the market-place; in one corner, there was a friendly bout at quarterstaff; and- what attracted most interest of all- on the platform of the pillory, already so noted in our pages, two masters of defence were commencing an exhibition with the buckler and broadsword. But, much to the disappointment of the crowd, this latter business was broken off by the interposition of the town beadle, who had no idea of permitting the majesty of the law to be violated by such an abuse of one of its consecrated places.

It may not be too much to affirm, on the whole (the people being then in the first stages of joyless deportment, and the offspring of sires who had known how to be merry, in their day), that they would compare favourably, in point of holiday keeping, with their descendants, even at so long an interval as ourselves. Their immediate posterity, the generation next to the early emigrants, wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so darkened the national visage with it, that all the subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up. We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gaiety.

The picture of human life in the market-place, though its general tint was the sad grey, brown, or black of the English emigrants, was yet enlivened by some diversity of hue. A party of Indians- in their savage finery of curiously embroidered deer-skin robes, wampum-belts, red and yellow ochre, and feathers, and armed with the bow and arrow and stone-headed spear- stood apart, with countenances of inflexible gravity, beyond what even the Puritan aspect could attain. Nor, wild as were these painted barbarians, were they the wildest feature of the scene. This distinction could more justly be claimed by some mariners-a part of the crew of the vessel from the Spanish Main- who had come ashore to see the humours of Election Day. They were rough-looking desperadoes, with sun-blackened faces, and an immensity of beard; their wide, short trousers were confined about the waist by belts, often clasped with a rough plate of gold, and sustaining always a long knife, and, in some instances, a sword. From beneath their broad-brimmed hats of palm-leaf, gleamed eyes which, even in good-nature and merriment, had a kind of animal ferocity. They transgressed, without fear or scruple, the rules of behaviour that were binding on all others; smoking tobacco under the beadle's very nose, although each whiff would have cost a townsman a shilling; and quaffing, at their pleasure, draughts of wine or aqua-vitae from pocket-flasks, which they freely tendered to the gaping crowd around them. It remarkably characterised the incomplete morality of the age, rigid as we call it, that a license was allowed the seafaring class, not merely for their freaks on shore, but for far more desperate deeds on their proper element. The sailor of that day would go near to be arraigned as a pirate in our own. There could be little doubt, for instance, that this very ship's crew, though no unfavourable specimens of the nautical brotherhood, had been guilty, as we should phrase it, of depredations on the Spanish commerce, such as would have perilled all their necks in a modern court of justice.

But the sea in those old times, heaved, swelled, and foamed, very much at its own will, or subject only to the tempestuous wind, with hardly any attempts at regulation by human law. The buccaneer on the wave might relinquish his calling, and become at once, if he chose, a man of probity and piety on land; nor, even in the full career of his reckless life, was he regarded as a personage with whom it was disreputable to traffic, or casually associate. Thus, the Puritan elders, in their black cloaks, starched bands, and steeple-crowned hats, smiled not unbenignantly at the clamour and rude deportment of these jolly seafaring men; and it excited neither surprise nor anim-adversion, when so reputable a citizen as old Roger Chillingworth, the physician, was seen to enter the market-place, in close and familiar talk with the commander of the questionable vessel.

The latter was by far the most showy and gallant figure, so far as apparel went, anywhere to be seen among the multitude. He wore a profusion of ribbons on his garment, and gold lace on his hat, which was also encircled by a gold chain, and surmounted with a feather. There was a sword at his side, and a sword-cut on his forehead, which, by the arrangement of his hair, he seemed anxious rather to display than hide. A landsman could hardly have worn this garb and shown this face, and worn and shown them both with such a galliard air, without undergoing stern question before a magistrate, and probably incurring fine or imprisonment, or perhaps an exhibition in the stocks. As regarded the shipmaster, however, all was looked upon as pertaining to the character, as to a fish his glistening scales.

After parting from the physician, the commander of the Bristol ship strolled idly through the market-place; until, happening to approach the spot where Hester Prynne was standing, he appeared to recognise, and did not hesitate to address her. As was usually the case wherever Hester stood, a small vacant area- a sort of magic circle- had formed itself about her, into which, though the people were elbowing one another at a little distance, none ventured, or felt disposed to intrude. It was a forcible type of the moral solitude in which the scarlet letter enveloped its fated wearer; partly by her own reserve, and partly by the instinctive, though no longer so unkindly, withdrawal of her fellow-creatures. Now, if never before, it answered a good purpose, by enabling Hester and the seaman to speak together without the risk of being overheard; and so changed was Hester Prynne's repute before the public, that the matron in town most eminent for rigid morality could not have held such intercourse with less result of scandal than herself.

"So, mistress," said the mariner, "I must bid the steward make ready one more berth than you bargained for! No fear of scurvy or ship-fever, this voyage! What with the ship's surgeon and this other doctor, our only danger will be from drug or pill; more by token, as there is a lot of apothecary's stuff aboard, which I traded for with a Spanish vessel."

"What mean you?" inquired Hester, startled more than she permitted to appear. "Have you another passenger?"

"Why, know you not," cried the shipmaster, "that this physician here- Chillingworth, he calls himself- is minded to try my cabin-fare with you? Ay, ay, you must have known it; for he tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the gentleman you spoke of- he that is in peril from these sour old Puritan rulers!"

"They know each other well, indeed," replied Hester, with a mien of calmness, though in the utmost consternation. "They have long dwelt together."

Nothing further passed between the mariner and Hester Prynne. But, at that instant, she beheld old Roger Chillingworth himself, standing in the remotest corner of the market-place, and smiling on her; a smile which- across the wide and bustling square, and through all the talk and laughter, and various thoughts, moods, and interests of the crowd- conveyed secret and fearful meaning.

在新总督从人民手中接受他的职位的那天早晨，海丝特·白兰和小珠儿来到市场。那地方已然挤满了数量可观的工匠和镇上的其他黎民百姓；其中也有许多粗野的身形，他们身上穿的鹿皮衣装，表明他们是这个殖民地小都会周围的林中居民。在这个公共假日里，海丝特和七年来的任何场合一样，仍然穿着她那身灰色粗布作的袍子。这身衣服的颜色，尤其是那说不出来的独特的样式，有一种使她轮廓模糊、不引人注目的效果；然而，那红字又使她从朦胧难辨之中跳出来，以其自身的闪光，把她显示在其精神之下。她那早巳为镇上居民所熟悉的面孔，露出那种常见的大理石般的静穆，伊如一副面具，或者更象一个亡妇脸上的那种僵死的恬静；如此令人沮丧的类比，是因为事实上海丝特无权要求任何同情，犹如实际上死去一般，她虽然看来似混迹于人间，确已经辞世。

这一天，她脸上或许有一种前所未见的表情，不过此时尚未清晰可察；除非有一个具备超自然秉赋的观察者能够首先洞悉她的内心，然后才会在她的表情和举止上找到相应的变化。这样一个能够洞悉内心的观察者或许可以发现，历经七年痛苦岁月，她将众目睽睽的注视作为一种必然、一种惩罚和某种宗教的严峻煎熬忍受着，如今，已是最后一次了，她要自由而自愿地面对人们的注视，以便把长期的苦难一变而为胜利。“再最后看一眼这红字和佩戴红字的人吧！”人们心目中的这个牺牲品和终身奴仆会对他们这样说。“不过再过一段时间，她就会远走高飞了！只消几个小时，那深不可测的大海将把你们在她胸前灼烧的标记永远淹没无存！”假如我们设想，当海丝特此时此刻即将从与她深深相联的痛苦中赢得自由时，心中可能会升起一丝遗憾之感，恐怕也并不有悼于人之本性。既然自从她成为妇人以来的多年中，几乎始终品尝着苦艾和芦荟，难道这时就不会有一种难以逼止的欲望要最后一次屏住气吸上一大杯这种苦剂吗？今后举到她唇边的、盛在雕花的金色大杯中的生活的美酒，肯定是醇厚、馥郁和令人陶醉的；不然的话，在她喝惯了具有强效的兴奋剂式的苦酒渣之后，必然会产生一种厌烦的昏昏然之感。

她把珠儿打扮得花枝招展。人们简直难以猜测，这个如阳光般明媚的精灵竟然来自那灰暗的母体；或者说，人们简直难以想象，设计那孩子服饰所需的华丽与精巧，与赋予海丝特那件简朴长袍以明显特色的——这任务或许更困难，竟然同时出自一人之手。那身衣裙穿在小珠儿身上恰到好处，俨如她个性的一种流露，或是其必然发展和外部表现，就象蝴蝶翅膀上的绚丽多彩或灿烂花朵上的鲜艳光辉一样无法与本体分割开来。衣裙之于孩子，也是同一道理，完全与她的本性浑自天成。更何况，在这事关重大的一天，她情绪上有一种特殊的不安和兴奋，极象佩在胸前的钻石，会随着心口的种种悸动而闪光生辉。孩子们与同他们相关的人们的激动总是息息相通；在家庭环境中出现了什么麻烦或迫在眉睫的变动时，尤其如此；因此，作为悬在母亲不安的心口上的一颗宝石，珠儿以她那跳动的精神，暴露了从海丝特眉间磐石般的平静中谁都发现不了的内心感情。

她兴高采烈得不肯安分地走在她母亲身边，而且象鸟儿一样地蹦跳着。她不停地狂呼乱叫，也不知喊些什么，有时还尖着嗓子高唱。后来，她们来到了市场，看到那里活跃喧闹的气氛，她就益发不得安宁了；因为那地方平时与其说是镇上的商业中心，不如说象是村会所前的宽阔而孤寂的绿草地。

“咦，这是什么啊，妈妈？”她叫道。“大伙儿干嘛今天都不干活儿啦？今天全世界都休息吗？瞧啊，铁匠就在那儿！他洗掉了满脸煤烟，穿上了过星期日的衣服，象是只要有个好心人教教他，就要痛痛快快地玩玩哪！那位老狱吏布莱基特先生，还在那儿朝我点头微笑呢。他干嘛要这样呢，妈妈？”

“他还记得你是个小小的婴儿的样子呢，我的孩子，”海丝特回答说。

“那个长得又黑又吓人、眼睛很丑的老头儿，才不会因为这个对我点头微笑呢！”珠儿说。“他要是愿意，倒会向你点头的；因为你穿一身灰，还戴着红字。可是瞧啊，妈妈，这儿有多少生人的面孔啊，里边还有印第安人和水手呢！他们都到这市场上来干嘛呢？”

“他们等着看游行队伍经过，”海丝特说。“因为总督和官员们要从这里走过，还有牧师们，以及所有的大人物和好心人，前面要有乐队和士兵开路呢。”

“牧师会在那儿吗？”珠儿问。“他会朝我伸出双手，就象你从小河边领着我去见他的时候那样吗？”

“他会在那儿的，孩子，”她母亲回答。“但是他今天不会招呼你；你也不该招呼他。”

“他是一个多么奇怪、多么伤心的人啊！”孩子说，有点象是自言自语。“在那个黑夜里，他叫咱们到他跟前去，还握住你和我的手，陪他一起站在那边那个刑台上。而在深源的树林里，只有那些老树能够听见、只有那一线青天可以看见的地方，他跟你坐在一堆青苔上谈话！他还亲吻了我的额头，连小河的流水都洗不掉啦！可是在这儿，天上晴晴的，又有这么些人，他却不认识我们；我们也不该认识他！他真是个又奇怪又伤心的人，总是用手捂着心口！”

“别作声，珠儿！你不明白这些事情，”她母亲说。“这会儿别想着牧师，往周围看看吧，看看大伙今天脸上有多高兴，孩子们都从学校出来了，大人也都从店铺和农田里走来了，为的就是高兴一下子。因为，今天要有一个新人来统治他们了；自从人类第一次凑成一个国家就有这种习惯了，所以嘛，他们就病痛快快地来欢庆一番；就象又老又穷的世界终于要过上一个黄金般的好年景了！”

海丝特说得不错，人们的脸上确实闪耀着非同凡响的欢乐。过去已然这样，在随后两个世纪的大部分年月里依然如此，清教徒们把自认为人类的弱点所能容忍的一切欢乐和公共喜庆，全都压缩在一年中的这一节日中；因此，他们总算拨开积年的阴霾，就这独一无二的节日而论，他们的神情才不致比大多数别处的居民倒霉时的面容要严峻些。

不过，我们也许过于夸张了这种灰黑的色调，尽管那确实是当年的心情和举止的特色。此刻在波士顿市场上的人们，并非生来就继承了清教徒的阴郁。他们本来都生在英国，其父辈曾在伊丽莎白时代的明媚和丰饶中生活；当时英国的生活，大体上看，堪称世界上前所未见的庄严、壮丽和欢乐。假若新英格兰的定居者们遵依传统的趣味，他们就会用篝火、宴会、表演和游行来装点一切重大的公共事件。而且，在隆重的典礼仪式中，把欢欣的消遣同庄重结合起来，就象国民在这种节日穿戴的大礼服上饰以光怪陆离的刺绣一样，也就没什么不实际的了。在殖民地开始其政治年度的这一天庆祝活动中，还有这种意图的影子。在我们祖先们所制定的每年一度的执政官就职仪式中，还能窥见他们当年在古老而骄傲的伦敦——我们妨且不谈国王加冕大典，只指市长大人的就职仪式——所看到的痕迹的重现，不过这种反映已经模糊，记忆中的余辉经多次冲淡已然褪色。当年，我们这个合众国的奠基人和先辈们——那些政治家、牧师和军人，将注重外表的庄严和威武视为一种职责，按照古老的风范，那种打扮正是社会贤达和政府委员的恰当装束。他们在人们眼前按部就班地一一定来，以使那刚刚组成的政府的简单机构获得所需的威严。

在这种时刻，人们平日视如宗教教义一般严加施行的种种勤俭生活方式，即使没有受到鼓励吧，总可以获准稍加放松。诚然，这里没有伊丽莎白时代或詹姆斯时代在英国比比皆是的通俗娱乐设施，没有演剧之类的粗俗表演，没有弹着竖琴唱传奇歌谣的游吟诗人，没有奏着音乐耍猴的走江湖的人，没有变戏法的民间艺人，也没有逗得大家哄堂大笑的“快乐的安德鲁”①说那些由于笑料选出、虽已流传上百年、仍让人百听不厌的笑话。从事这种种滑稽职业的艺人们，不仅为严格的法律条文所严厉禁止，也遭到使法律得以生效的人们感情上的厌恶。然而，普通百姓那一本正经和老成持重的面孔上依然微笑着，虽说可能有点不自然，却也很开心。竞技活动也不算缺乏，诸如移民们好久以前在英国农村集市和草地上看到和参加的格斗比赛，由于本质上发扬了英武和阳刚精神，被视为应于这片新大陆上加以保留。在康沃尔和德文郡的种种形式的角力比赛，在这里的市场周围随处可见；在一个角落里，正在进行一场使用铁头木棍作武器的友谊较量；而最吸引大家兴趣的，是在刑台上——这地方在我们书中已经颇为注目了，有两位手执盾牌和宽剑的武士，正在开始一场公开表演。但是，使大家扫兴的是，刑台上的这场表演因遭到镇上差役的干涉而中断，他认为对这祭献之地妄加滥用，是侵犯了法律的尊严，是绝对不能允许的。

当时的居民还是第一代没有欢乐活动的人，而且又是那些活着时深诸如何行乐曲父辈们的直接后裔，就过节这一点而论，比起他们的子孙，乃至相隔甚久的我们这些人，算是懂得快活的了，我们作这种一般性的结论，恐怕并不过分。早期移民的子嗣，也就是他们的下一代后人，受清教主义阴影笼罩最深，从而使国家的形象黯淡无光，以致在随后的多年中都不足以清洗干净。我们只好重新学习这门忘却已久的寻欢作乐曲本领。

市场上的这幅人生图画，虽说基调是英国移民的忧伤的灰色、褐色和黑色，也还固间有一些其它色彩而显得活跃。一群印第安人，身穿有着野蛮人华丽的、绣着奇形怪状图案的鹿皮袍，腰束贝壳缀成的带子，头戴由红色和黄色赭石及羽毛做成的饰物，背挎弓箭，手执石尖长矛，站在一旁，他们脸上那种严肃刚毅的神情，比清教徒们还有过之而无不及。但这些周身涂得花花绿绿的野蛮人，还算不上当场最粗野的景象；更能充分表现这一特色的，是一批从那艘来自拉丁美洲北部海域的船上的水手，他们上岸来就是为了观看庆祝选举日的热闹的。他们是一伙外貌粗鲁的亡命之徒，个个面孔晒得黝黑，蓄着大胡子；又肥又短的裤子在腰间束着宽腰带，往往用一片粗金充当扣子，总是插着一柄长刀，偶尔是短剑。宽檐棕榈叶帽子下面闪着的那双眼睛，即使在心情好、兴致高的时候，也露出一股野兽般的凶光。他们肆元忌惮地违犯着约束着众人的行为准则；公然在差役的鼻子底下吸烟，尽管镇上人每这样吸上一日就要被罚一先令；他们还随心所欲地从衣袋里掏出酒瓶，大口喝着葡萄酒或烈性洒，并且随随便便地递给围周那些目蹬口呆的人们。这充分说明了当年道德标准的缺欠，我们虽然认为十分严格，但对那些浪迹海洋的人却网开一面，不仅容忍他们在陆上为所欲为，而且听凭他们在自己的天地里，更加无法无天。当年的那些水手，几乎与如今的海盗无异。就以这艘船上的船员为例吧，他们虽然不是海上生涯中那种声名狼藉的人物，但用我们的话说，肯定犯有劫掠西班牙商船的罪行，在今天的法庭上，都有处以绞刑的危险。

但是那时候的大海，汹涌澎湃、掀浪卷沫，很大程度上是我行我素，或仅仅臣服于狂风暴雨，从来没有道接受人类法律束缚的念头。那些在风口浪尖上谋生的海盗们，只要心甘情愿，可以洗手不干，立刻成为岸上的一名正直诚实的君子；面即使在他们任意胡为的生涯中，人们也并不把他们视为不屑一颐或与之稍打交道就有损自己名声的人。因此，那些穿着黑色礼服、挺着浆过的环状皱领、戴着尖顶高帽的清教徒长者们，对于这帮快活的水手们的大声喧哗和粗野举动，反倒报以不无慈爱的微笑；而当人们看到老罗杰·齐灵渥斯这样一个德高望重的居民和医生走进市场、同那艘形迹可疑的船只曲船长亲密面随便地交谈的时候，既没有引起惊讶之感，也没有议论纷纷。

就那位船长的服饰而论，无论他出现在人群中的什么地方，都是一个最显眼、最英武的人物。他的衣服上佩戴着备色奢华的缎带，帽子上缠着一圈金色丝绦，还缀着一根金链，上面插着一根羽毛。他胁下挎着一柄长剑，额头上留着一块伤疤——从他蓄的发式来看，似乎更急切地要显露出来而不是要加以掩盖。一个陆地上的人，若是周身这股穿戴、露出这副尊容，而且还得意洋洋地招摇过市，恐怕很难不被当宫的召去传讯，甚至会被课以罚金或判处监禁，也许会枷号示众。然而，对于这位船长而言，这一切都和他的身份相依相附，犹如鱼身上长着闪光的鳞片。

准备开往布利斯托尔的那艘船的船长，和医生分手后，就悠闲地踱过市场；后来他刚好走近海丝特·白兰站立的地方，他好象认识她，径直上前去打招呼。和通常一样，凡是海丝特所站之处，周围就会形成一小块空地，似乎有一种魔圈围着，圈外的人尽管在附近摩肩擦背地挤作一团，也没人甘冒风险或乐于闯进那块空地。这正是红字在注定要佩戴它的人四周所形成的一种强制性的精神上的孤立；这固然是由于她自己的回避，但也是由于她的同胞们的本能的退缩，尽管这种退缩早已不那么不友好了。如果说这种隔离圈以前毫无裨益的话，此时倒是大有好处，因为海丝特能够同那位船长交谈而不致冒被人听到的风险j何况海丝特·白兰在众人间的声名已经大有改变，即使是镇上以恪守妇道最为著称的妇人进行这种谈话，都不会比她少受风言风语的指责。

“啊，太太，”船长说，“我得让船员在你要求的席位之外，再多安排一个！那就不必担心路上得坏血症或斑疹伤寒这类疾病了！有了船上的外科医生和另外这位医生，我们唯一的危险就差药剂或药丸了；其实，我船上还有一大批药物，是跟一艘西班牙船换的。”

“你这是什么意思啊？”海丝特问道，脸上禁不佳露出了惊诧神色。“你还有另一位乘客吗？”

“怎么，你还不知道？”船长大声说，”这儿的这位医生——他自称齐灵渥斯——打算同你一道尝尝我那船上饭菜的滋味呢，唉，唉，你准已经知道了；因为他告诉我，他是你们的一伙，还是你提到的那位先生的密友呢——你不是说那位先生正受着这些讨厌的老清教徒统治者的迫害嘛！”

“的确，他们彼此很了解，”海丝特神色平静地回答说，尽管内心十分惊愕。“他们已经在一起往了好久了。”

船长和海丝特·白兰没有再说什么。但就在此时，她注意到老罗杰·齐灵渥斯本人，正站在市场远远的角落里，朝她微笑着，那副笑容越过宽阔熙攘的广场，穿透一切欢声笑语以及人群中的一切念头、情绪和兴趣，传达着诡秘而可怕的含义。①一个小丑、弄臣或江湖医生侍者的形象，据说源出亨利八世的医生安德鲁’博尔德。