One dark night in early May, Dimmesdale walked in a kind of dream to the scaffold where Hester had stood seven years before, and climbed its steps. There, overcome by a great horror of mind, he shrieked aloud, but the town slept on. Soon Hester and Pearl came by, returning from a deathbed, and he called them up to stand with him. When he took the child's hand, a tumultuous rush of new life seemed to pour into his heart. Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, tomorrow noontide? Pearl asked. Not tomorrow, he answered, but on the great judgment day. At that moment a meteor lit up the whole sky, and the minister, looking upward, saw the immense letter A marked out in lines of dull red light. In the same glare he saw old Roger Chillingworth, standing not far from the scaffold and watching them with a smile.