stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of
foliage that had overgrown the summit of the rock was all on
fire, blazing high into the night and fitfully illuminating the
whole field. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze.
As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation
alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again
grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the
solitary woods at once.

"A grave and dark-clad company," quoth Goodman Brown.

In truth they were such. Among them, quivering to and fro between
gloom and splendor, appeared faces that would be seen next day at
the council board of the province, and others which, Sabbath
after Sabbath, looked devoutly heavenward, and benignantly over
the crowded pews, from the holiest pulpits in the land. Some
affirm that the lady of the governor was there. At least there
were high dames well known to her, and wives of honored husbands,
and widows, a great multitude, and ancient maidens, all of
excellent repute, and fair young girls, who trembled lest their
mothers should espy them. Either the sudden gleams of light
flashing over the obscure field bedazzled Goodman Brown, or he
recognized a score of the church members of Salem village famous
for their especial sanctity. Good old Deacon Gookin had arrived,
and waited at the skirts of that venerable saint, his revered
pastor. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable,
and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames
and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of
spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice,
and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that