r with Louis. The _appel nominal_ was placed in force in
many of the sections, and Danton put the machinery of his ministry at
work to reinforce these measures, to convert them to use for terrorizing
the moderates, for satisfying the popular suspicions against the
aristocrats, for weighing on the elections. The primaries were to begin
on the 27th of August, those for Paris {149} on the 2d of September; the
meeting of electors for nominating the deputies of Paris was to take
place on the 5th of September.

Meanwhile Brunswick's columns were making steady, methodical progress
through the hills of Lorraine, through the frontier belt of fortresses.
The French armies in their front were weak in numbers, even weaker in
leadership. La Fayette, who had attempted to reaffirm the constitution
on hearing of the event of the 10th of August, deemed it prudent to ride
over the frontier when commissioners of the assembly reached his camp; he
was seized as a prisoner by the allies to remain their captive for many
years. On the 20th the Prussian guns opened on Longwy; on the 23rd it
surrendered. On the 30th the siege of Verdun was begun, Verdun which
Louis had so nearly reached the year before. It was generally known that
the fortress could not stand more than a few days. Between it and Paris
there was only the Argonne, a few miles of hilly passes, and then 100
miles of open country.

The steady advance of Brunswick drove Paris into a state approaching
delirium. On the news of the fall of Longwy reaching the city, the
extremists, their appetites whetted by {150} the butchery of the Swiss,
began to plot a massacre of the political prisoners, of the royalists, of
the suspect. On the 28th of August Danton, riding on the wings of the
storm, asked power from the Commune to carry out domiciliary visits for
the purpose of arresting suspects. This power was granted, and in three
days the prisons were filled to overflowing, priests and persons of title
being specially singled out for arrest.

By the 1st of September Paris was ready to answer the Duke of Brunswick,
was ready for the stroke that was to destroy the anti-revolutionists,
that was to strike terror to the hearts of all enemies of the people.
But the awfulness of the deed delayed its execution. The day passed in
high-wrought excitement; at any moment news might arrive of the fall of
Verdun,--that might be the signal for the explosion of the popular fury.

On the 2d there w