executions. The most heinous example is when he ordered the execution of the sentence of death decreed by the Revolutionary Tribunal on some young girls at Verdun who had offered flowers to the Prussian soldiers when they entered the town. He thus joined the ranks of Tallien, Fréron, and Fouché as perpetrators of the worst excesses of Terror, and like them found his position growing tenuous. He secured his survival when he spoke against Maximilien Robespierre in the course of the Thermidorian coup (27 July 1794). Thermidorian Reaction In the reactionary political order that followed the demise of Robespierre, Mallarmé was sent on mission to Haute-Garonne and Gers (21 August 1794 - 23 October 1794, 6 November 1794 - 15 January 1795). It was an entirely different part of France than he had been involved with heretofore, and similarly, he pursued a very different set of goals, closing down the terrorist Jacobin clubs and setting free prisoners who had been locked away during the Terror as enemies of the state. Alas, his own terrorist activities caught up with him and he was denounced and arrested (1 June 1795), but he was released soon after the amnesty of 26 October 1795. Directory, Consulate, and Empire In 1796 he was appointed by the Directory commissioner for the organization of the départements of Dyle and Mont-Tonnerre. Under the Empire, Mallarmé was collector of the droits réunis (sales taxes) at Nancy, and lost his money in 1814 in raising the levée of volunteers. Appointed sous-préfet of Avesnes during the Hundred Days, he was imprisoned by the Prussian authorities in revenge for the death of the maidens of Verdun, and held for six months in Wesel. He took refuge in Brussels and then Mechelen (with the Cellite monks), and remained in exile during the Bourbon Restoration. He died in Mechelen. References External links Biography of François-René-Auguste Mallarmé 1755 births 1835 deaths Politicians from Nancy, France Deputies to the French National Convention Knights of the First French Empire Barons of the First French Empire 18th-century French lawyers People on the Committee of Public Safety Presidents of the National Convention