Unnamed Members of Vigilance Committee

Also called "a posse" (35), the "vigilance committee" in Absalom! that accompanies the county sheriff when he confronts Sutpen on suspicion of theft originally consists of "eight or ten" men (34). In an essentially comic scene, this group follows Sutpen on his courtship errand as their numbers grow (according to General Compson) to "almost fifty" men (35) - including "other horsemen [who] rode into the square" and "others who did not happen to have horses" (35) as well as some of the men who were lounging "on the gallery of the Holston House" when Sutpen reached town (34). After the sheriff decides to arrest him, "the rest of the able-bodied men" in town "leave their offices and stores" to join this group (36).