`` They seem to be of high station among these misdoers . Methinks their dignity will not be fitted with less than a double share of stripes . '' Endicott rested on his sword and closely surveyed the dress and aspect of the hapless pair . There they stood , pale , downcast and apprehensive , yet there was an air of mutual support and of pure affection seeking aid and giving it that showed them to be man and wife with the sanction of a priest upon their love . The youth in the peril of the moment , had dropped his gilded staff and thrown his arm about the Lady of the May , who leaned against his breast too lightly to burden him , but with weight enough to express that their destinies were linked together for good or evil . They looked first at each other and then into the grim captain 's face . There they stood in the first hour of wedlock , while the idle pleasures of which their companions were the emblems had given place to the sternest cares of life , personified by the dark Puritans . But never had their youthful beauty seemed so pure and high as when its glow was chastened by adversity . `` Youth , '' said Endicott , `` ye stand in an evil case -- thou and thy maiden-wife . Make ready presently , for I am minded that ye shall both have a token to remember your wedding-day . '' `` Stern man , '' cried the May-lord , `` how can I move thee ? Were the means at hand , I would resist to the death ; being powerless , I entreat . Do with me as thou wilt , but let Edith go untouched . '' `` Not so , '' replied the immitigable zealot . `` We are not wont to show an idle courtesy to that sex which requireth the stricter discipline . -- What sayest thou , maid ? Shall thy silken bridegroom suffer thy share of the penalty besides his own ? '' `` Be it death , '' said Edith , `` and lay it all on me . '' Truly , as Endicott had said , the poor lovers stood in a woeful case . Their foes were triumphant , their friends captive and abased , their home desolate , the benighted wilderness around them , and a rigorous destiny in the shape of the Puritan leader their only guide .
Yet the deepening twilight could not altogether conceal XXXXX the iron man was softened .
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