Who else approaches Dimmesdale just as he invites Pearl and Hester to join him on the scaffold?Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

This scene from The Scarlet Letter is
the very climax of the novel.  For, it is the point at which the character, Arthur
Dimmesdale, resolves the terrible conflicts of conscience and soul in which he has been
engaged since the first scaffold scene.  By standing upon the scaffold and confessing
his sin, spiritually Dimmesdale is released--the truth does, indeed, set him free.  For,
Dimmesdale is set free from the devilish torture of the fiend that Roger Chillingworth
has become.  Standing beneath the minister, about whom he told Hester in Chapter IV,
"Sooner or later, he must needs be mine," now has lost the victim whom he has tortured
in his desire for vengeance. 

Having attempted to deter the
minister, to "snatch back his victim," he has promised Dimmesdale that he can yet save
him:

"Madman,
hold!  What is your purpose?...Wave back that woman!  Cast off this child.  All shall be
well!  Do not blacken your fame, and perish in dishonour!  I can yet save you!  Would
you bring infamy on your sacred
profession?"

Responding much
as Jesus did when the Satan tempted Him [Matthew 4:1-3] in the desert, Dimmesdale tells
the dark and evil man,

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"Ha, tempter! Methinks thou art too late!...Thy
power is not what it was!  With God's help, I shall escape thee
now!"

In his confession to
the town, Dimmesdale is freed from his secret sin; he fulfills the theme of Hawthorne
that is stated in the concluding chapter: 

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"Be true!  Be true! Show freely to the world, if
not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be
inferred!" 

For, by
being "true," no one can be false to any other.