It was universally felt that these farcical performances of uncouth administrators were only the manifestations of a bottomless hatred, of a morbid desire to insult and to humble the Jews, and that these administrators were capable at any moment to proceed from moralizing to more tangible forms of ill-treatment.

This danger intensified the state of alarm.
While making preparations for storming the citadel of Russian Jewry, the Government took good care to keep it meanwhile in its normal state of siege.

The resourcefulness of the administration brought the _technique_ of repression to perfection.

The officials were no longer content with inventing cunning devices for expelling old Jewish residents from the villages.

[1] They now made endeavors to reduce even the area of the _urban_ Pale in which the Jews were huddled together, panting for breath.