The Duke of Stockbridge by Edward Bellamy — Read

Squire Woodbridge had not failed to detect the first signs of decrease / in the ebullition of the popular mind after the revolt of Tuesday, and / when by Friday and Saturday the mob had apparently quite disappeared, / and the village had returned to its normal condition, he assured himself / that the rebellion was all over, and it only remained for him and his / colleagues cautiously to get hold of the reins again, and then -- then for / the whip. For, the similitude under which the Squire oftenest thought / of the people of Stockbridge was that of a team of horses which he was / driving. There had been a little runaway, and he had been pitched out on / his head. Let him once get his grip on the lines again, and the whip in / his hand, and there should be some fine dancing among the leaders, or / his name was not Jahleel Woodbridge, Esquire, and the whipping post on / the green was nothing but a rosebush.

He was in a hurry for two reasons to get the reins in his hands again. / In the first place, for the very natural and obvious reason that he / grudged every moment of immunity from punishment enjoyed by men who had / put him to such an open shame. The other and less obvious reason was the / expected return of Squire Sedgwick from Boston. Sedgwick had been gone / a week. He might be absent a week or two weeks more, but he might return / any day. One thing was evident to Jahleel Woodbridge. Before this man / returned, of whose growing and rival influence he had already so much / reason to be jealous, he must have put an end to anarchy in Stockbridge, / and once more stand at the head of its government. Sedgwick had warned / him of the explosive state of popular feeling: he had resented that / warning, and the event had proved his rival right. The only thing now / left him was to show Sedgwick that if he had not been able to foresee / the rebellion, he had been able to suppress it. Nevertheless he would / proceed cautiously.