Born at Martinique, where he married a lady who, afterwards as wife of Napoleon, became the Empress Joséphine; accepted and took part in the Revolution; was secretary of the National Assembly; coolly remarked, on the news of the flight of the king, "The king's gone off; let us pass to the next business of the House"; was convicted of treachery to the cause of the Revolution and put to death; as the father of Hortense, who married Louis, Napoleon's brother, he became grandfather of Napoleon III. (1760-1794).