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 tomb-stone
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 may
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:-"ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES"