to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him.
Yet there was the blue arch, and the stars brightening in it.

"With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against
the devil!" cried Goodman Brown.

While he still gazed upward into the deep arch of the firmament
and had lifted his hands to pray, a cloud, though no wind was
stirring, hurried across the zenith and hid the brightening
stars. The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead,
where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward.
Aloft in the air, as if from the depths of the cloud, came a
confused and doubtful sound of voices. Once the listener fancied
that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own,
men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at
the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern.
The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted
whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest,
whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those
familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine at Salem village, but
never until now from a cloud of night There was one voice of a
young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow,
and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve
her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and
sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.

"Faith!" shouted Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and
desperation; and the echoes of the forest mocked him, crying,
"Faith! Faith!" as if bewildered wretches were seeking her all
through the wilderness.