In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, during Dimmesdale's vigil, there were other people walking by the scaffold. Who were they, where had they been and...

In Chapter
Twelve of
Hawthorne's , while the Rev. Mr.is on the scaffold late
one
night, several people pass by. One is the Rev. Mr. Wilson, who Dimmesdale
calls out to.
Obviously Wilson does not hear him, and as they do not speak,
we cannot be certain where Wilson
has been. We can
assume that he has been where others passing by have
also
been.

Dimmesdale is surprised to see Hester
andwalking by as well.

Pearl! Little
Pearl! cried he, after a moment's pause; then,
suppressing his voice,Hester!
! Are you there?

Hester
answers and he
stops them, wondering why they are out so late:

Whence come you, Hester? asked the minister. What sent you
hither?

Hester answers Dimmesdale; she
and others have been out for the
same serious purpose:

I have been watching at a
death-bed...at Governor
Winthrop's death-bed...

Hester
infers
that the governor has died for she also notes that she is on her way home now, with
the
dead man's measurements, to sew his
href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shroud"

title="shroud">shroud or "robe." Dimmesdale asks them to join

him on the scaffold.

The three of themDimmesdale, Hester and little
Pearlare
suddenly startled to see a meteor (shooting star) crossing the night
sky, casting a reddish glow
on all beneath it. Dimmesdale (who is the father
of Hester's child) believes he sees
in the fiery trail
of light, the shape of an "A," reminding him
of his guiltfor Hester never
revealed his identity, and he has never admitted to his involvement
with
her.

Another person is out that evening; it is Pearl who sees
him
first:

[Pearl] withdrew her hand
from Mr. Dimmesdale's,
and pointed across the street. 

Dimmesdale is still
entranced by the passing
meteor, and the significance of what he

believes he sees; but at the same time, he is somehow aware not
just that
someone else is there in the shadows, but exactly who
is there:

All the
time that he gazed upward to the zenith, he was,
nevertheless, perfectly
aware that little Pearl was pointing her finger towards old
...

Chillingworth is Hester's long-lost husband,
though
he has made her swear not to tell anyone. He has also been caring for
Dimmesdale who is in poor
health, but doing so even while knowing that
Dimmesdale was his wife's lover. And without
knowing who Chillingworth really
is, Dimmesdale still abhors the man.

Chillingworth, a physician, has also been to the governor's home,

waiting at his side as the man died.

It seems
that those
who are out so late have been at the governor's home, as he was
dying.