1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mallarmé, François René Auguste

MALLARMÉ, FRANÇOIS RENÉ AUGUSTE (1755–1835), French Revolutionist, the son of a lawyer, was born at Nancy on the 25th of February 1755. He was brought up in his father’s profession, and was appointed procureur-syndic of the district of Pont-à-Mousson. During the Revolution he was elected by the department of Meurthe deputy to the Legislative Assembly and the Convention, where he attached himself to the Mountain and voted for the death of Louis XVI. He was elected president of the Convention on the 30th of May 1793, and by his weakness during the crisis of the following day contributed much to the success of the insurrection against the Girondists. He took an active part in the levée-en-masse, and in November 1793 was given the task of establishing the revolutionary government in the departments of Meuse and Moselle, where he gained an unenviable notoriety by ordering the execution of the sentence of death decreed by the revolutionary tribunal on some young girls at Verdun who had offered flowers to the Prussians when they entered the town. After the fall of Robespierre he joined the group of “Thermidorians” and was sent on mission to the south of France, where he closed the Jacobin club at Toulouse and set free a number of imprisoned “suspects.” On the 1st of June 1795 he was denounced and arrested, but was soon set at liberty. In 1796 he was appointed by the Directory commissioner for the organization of the departments of Dyle and Mont-Tonnerre. Under the empire he was receiver of the droits réunis at Nancy, and lost his money in 1814 in raising a levy of volunteers. Appointed sub-prefect of Avesnes during the Hundred Days, he was imprisoned by the Prussians in revenge for the death of the maidens of Verdun, and lived in exile during the Restoration. He returned to France after the revolution of 1830, and died at Richemont (Seine-Inférieure) on the 25th of July 1835.