He entered the Congregation of the Christian Doctrine, and became tutor to the son of a Paris banker. In 1783 he published a pamphlet, called Essais historiques, critiques, litteraires, et philosophiques, for which he was imprisoned in the Bastille. He embraced the revolutionary ideas, and after the taking of the Bastille became a member of the provisional municipality of Paris. He was one of the leaders of the emeutes of June 20 and August 10, 1792, played an important part in the formation of the revolutionary commune which assured the success of the latter coup, and was made procureur of the commune.
He was present at the September massacres and saved several prisoners, and on September 7, 1792 was elected one of the deputies from Paris to the convention, where he was one of the promoters of the proclamation of the republic. He suppressed the decoration of the Cross of St Louis, which he called a stain on a man's coat, and demanded the sale of the palace of Versailles. His missions to the king, however, changed his sentiments; he became reconciled to Louis, courageously refused to vote for the death of the sovereign, and had to tender his resignation as deputy. He retired to Montargis, where he was arrested, and was guillotined in Paris on the 17th of November 1793.
Besides the work cited above and his political pamphlets, he was the author of Coup d'oeil philosophique sur le regne de St Louis (1786); L'Annee française (1788); La Bastille devoillé (1789); La Police de Paris devoilée (1791); and Lettres sur la Révolution (1792). In 1792 he was prosecuted for publishing an edition of the Lettres de Mirabeau a Sophie, but was acquitted.
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