What is the usual penalty for adultery, according to the townsman. In what way is Hester to be punished ?

The usual penalty is death, but Hester will have to stand on the platform three hors and wear the letter of shame;

"The penalty thereof is death. But, in their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom."