As the people ran
together on the green, to learn the reason of these strange
appearances, and the story passed from lip to lip what had been the
plot against their newly-acquired liberties, and the persons of their
leaders, and by what a narrow chance, and by whose bold action the
trouble had been averted, the sensation was prodigious. The tendency
of public opinion which had been inclining to sympathize a little with
the abuse the silk stockings had been undergoing the past week, was
instantly reversed, now that the so near success of their plot once
more made them objects of terror. The exasperation was far more
general and profound than had been excited by the previous attempt to
restore the old order of things, in the case of the sale of David
Joy's house. This was more serious business. Every man who had been
connected with the rebellion, felt in imagination the lash on his
back, and white faces were plenty among the stoutest of them. And what
they felt for themselves, you may be sure their wives and children and
friends felt for them, with even greater intensity. As now and then
the wife or child of one of the prisoners in the guard house, with
anxious face, timidly passed through the throng, on the way to make
inquiries concerning the welfare of the husband or father, black looks
and muttered curses followed them, and the rude gibes with which the
sentinels responded to their anxious, tearful questionings, were
received with hoarse laughter by the crowd.
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