His aspect showed no lack of zeal to maintain his heterodoxies even at the stake . The woman wore a cleft stick on her tongue , in appropriate retribution for having wagged that unruly member against the elders of the church , and her countenance and gestures gave much cause to apprehend that the moment the stick should be removed a repetition of the offence would demand new ingenuity in chastising it . The above-mentioned individuals had been sentenced to undergo their various modes of ignominy for the space of one hour at noonday . But among the crowd were several whose punishment would be lifelong -- some whose ears had been cropped like those of puppy-dogs , others whose cheeks had been branded with the initials of their misdemeanors ; one with his nostrils slit and seared , and another with a halter about his neck , which he was forbidden ever to take off or to conceal beneath his garments . Methinks he must have been grievously tempted to affix the other end of the rope to some convenient beam or bough . There was likewise a young woman with no mean share of beauty whose doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown in the eyes of all the world and her own children . And even her own children knew what that initial signified . Sporting with her infamy , the lost and desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth with golden thread and the nicest art of needlework ; so that the capital A might have been thought to mean `` Admirable , '' or anything rather than `` Adulteress . '' Let not the reader argue from any of these evidences of iniquity that the times of the Puritans were more vicious than our own , when as we pass along the very street of this sketch we discern no badge of infamy on man or woman . It was the policy of our ancestors to search out even the most secret sins and expose them to shame , without fear or favor , in the broadest light of the noonday sun . Were such the custom now , perchance we might find materials for a no less piquant sketch than the above . Except the malefactors whom we have described and the diseased or infirm persons , the whole male population of the town , between sixteen years and sixty were seen in the ranks of the train-band . A few stately savages in all the pomp and dignity of the primeval Indian stood gazing at the spectacle . Their flint-headed arrows were but childish weapons , compared with the matchlocks of the Puritans , and would have rattled harmlessly against the steel caps and hammered iron breastplates which enclosed each soldier in an individual fortress . The valiant John Endicott glanced with an eye of pride at his sturdy followers , and prepared to renew the martial toils of the day . `` Come , my stout hearts ! '' quoth he , drawing his sword . `` Let us show these poor heathen that we can handle our weapons like men of might . Well for them if they put us not to prove it in earnest ! '' The iron-breasted company straightened their line , and each man drew the heavy butt of his matchlock close to his left foot , thus awaiting the orders of the captain .
But as Endicott glanced right and XXXXX along the front he discovered a personage at some little distance with whom it behoved him to hold a parley .
Adulteress Endicott Indian breastplates ignominy left matchlocks needlework offence train-band