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 tombstone 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 might 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:-
-海丝特·白兰就一边这么说着,一边垂下双眸瞅着那红字。又经过许多许多年之后,在一座下陷的老坟附近,又挖了一座新坟,地点就是后来在一旁建起王家教堂的那块墓地。这座新坟靠近那座下陷的老坟,但中间留着一处空地,仿佛两位长眠者的骨殖无权相混。然而两座坟却共用一块墓碑。周围全是刻着家族纹章的碑石;而在这一方简陋的石板上——好奇的探索者仍会看见,却不明所以了——有着类似盾形纹章的刻痕。上面所刻的铭文,是一个专司宗谱纹章的官员的词句,可以充当我们现在结束的这个传说的箴言和简短描述;这传说实在阴惨,只有一点比阴影还要幽暗的永恒的光斑稍稍给人一点宽慰:"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."“一片墨黑的土地,一个血红的A字。
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