FONTANES, Louis, Marquis de (1757-1821), French poet and politician, was born at Niort, in Poitou, March 6, 1757. He was a descendant of a noble Protestant family of Languedoc, banished by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, but afterwards converted to the Catholic faith and restored to their native land. Having completed his education at the college of Niort, he went in 1777, after the death of his father and brother, to Paris. He had already made several attempts in verse; and in 1778 he published a short descriptive poem entitled La Forêt de Navarre. This procured him the notice and friendship of Ducis, and he was encouraged to persevere. During the next twelve years he published Le Cri de mon Coeur; Le Jour des Morts dans une Campagne, an imitation of Gray’s Elegy·, a translation of Pope’s Essay on Man (1783), with an elegant introduction which attracted more attention than the poem itself; Le Verger; La Chartreuse de Paris; and L ’ Essai sur l ’ Astronomie (1789). In this year appeared also his Èpltre sur VÉdit en Faveur des non- Catholiques, which was crowned by the academy. The Revolution converted the poet into a journalist, and he took part in the editorship of the Mercure François and the Modérateur. Compelled to leave Paris after the death of the king, he withdrew to Lyons, where he married and remained till the arrival of Collot d’Herbois in 1793. Driven again to lead a wandering life, he displayed at once his literary power, his patriotism, and his intrepidity in the eloquent petition on behalf of the Lyonnese victims of Collot d’Herbois and his colleagues, which was presented to the convention in December of that year. For this bold appeal he was proscribed, and he owed his protection in concealment to the friendship of Madame ...