followers. The utopian communist Étienne Cabet, who also from time to time collaborated with Laponneraye, praised L'Intelligence as 'the standard-bearer of the egalitarian party, the communist party' In 1839–1841, Laponneraye was a member of Cabet's communist association. Laponneraye's passionate declarations of hatred for tyranny and his history as a prisoner of conscience also attracted the attentions of the republican conspirators Louis Auguste Blanqui and Armand Barbès. Blanqui and Barbès were the leaders of the secret 'Society of the Seasons', which, in 1839, carried out an ill-fated insurrection. They had prepared a list of people they hoped to co-opt to a revolutionary Provisional Government, and Laponneraye's name was on it. The list was discovered by the police. Laponneraye avoided arrest for a few months, moving from city to city and occasionally spotted by police informers. His paper, L'Intelligence, was shut down in 1840, and Richard Lahautière, Laponneraye's chief collaborator, was imprisoned. Laponneraye was left with a personal debt of 20,566 francs. Meanwhile, Blanqui and Barbès engaged in mutual recriminations in prison and grew to become bitter enemies. Apparently the authorities eventually accepted that Laponneraye had not been involved in the 'Society of the Seasons' plot. In 1841 he launched a new journal, Le Club, presented as a 'journal of political and philosophical discussion' and advocating the widest application of the 'democratic principle'. After this journal failed, he launched the Feuilleton des Feuilletons, intended as digest of news and noteworthy publications from across Europe. This did not do well either, and in 1845, Laponneraye could not come up with the 484 francs timbre duty. In 1846 Laponneraye was in financial distress. His republican friends came to his aid by organising a 'subscription' to raise funds for him. In 1847, Laponneraye published the journal Revue Politique et Commerciale de la Méditerranée; the title suggests that he may have been trying for a broader, more middle-class audience. Revolution and death In February 1848, the Orléanist monarchy which had so often imprisoned Laponneraye was overthrown and the Second Republic proclaimed. The revolution found Laponneraye in the south of France. He welcomed it enthusiastically and threw himself into political journalism and organisational work. He contributed to L'Indépendant and, in October 1848, founded his own journal, La Voix du Peuple, to which his sister Zoé also contributed. Laponneraye was then living in Marseille, where he became president of the local branch of the Solidarité Républicaine. This association