d decisive election day that Marat and Danton settled the
date at which the great patriotic work of 'emptying the prisons' should
begin, and it was in view of this day also that the circular already
mentioned of Marat, Panis and Sergent was sent forth to all places at
which a lively administration of murder and pillage would be most likely
to conduce to the choice by the electors of deputies agreeable to the
authors of the circular.

The electors for the Department of the Marne chosen on August 26 were to
meet in Reims on September 2, and choose the Deputies for that
department to sit in the Convention.

In Reims Marat had a faithful personal ally in the person of the
Procureur-Syndic, the most important national functionary in the city.
This man, Couplet, called Beaucourt, was a disreputable and apostate
ex-monk who had married an ex-nun. His position, of course, gave him a
great influence over the least respectable part of the population, and
with Marat and Danton at his back in Paris he cared nothing for the
mayor and the municipal authorities. From August 19 to August 31 he kept
issuing incendiary placards and making inflammatory speeches in Reims.
On August 31 he received an intimation from Paris that a column of
so-called 'Volunteers' was in motion for Reims, and that he must have
things ready for them. To this end he caused the arrest of the
postmaster, M. Guerin, and of a poor young letter-carrier named Carton,
on a charge of sequestrating and burning 'compromising letters' which
ought to have been turned over to him and the 'justice of the Republic.'

On the morning of the election day there marched into Reims the expected
'Volunteers,' who carried banners proclaiming them to be 'Men of the
10th of August.' Couplet received them and feasted them. They broke up
into squads and went roaring about Reims denouncing 'the aristocrats'
and demanding 'justice upon all public enemies.' They finally broke open
the prison, and dragging out the unfortunate postmaster, cut him to
pieces in front of the Hotel de Ville. Some courageous citizens
contrived to smuggle out of their reach the young letter-carrier, and
took him for safety into the hall of the Municipal Council.

There the murderers followed him, excited by a speech from the
Procureur-Syndic, who knowing that no trial had been had, did not
scruple to say that 'nothing could excuse the unfaithful
letter-carrier.'

The town officers tried to get Carton out by a b