Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay however written on 5 July that "there are two sources of anxiety concerning the Bastille; the person of the commandant (de Launay) and the nature of the garrison there". De Launay had three daughters by two wives. Some of de Launay's brother's descendants settled in Russia (see Boris Delaunay and Vadim Delaunay for details). His killing is described graphically in Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" (Book II, Chapter 21) and also in Hilary Mantel's "A Place of Greater Safety". Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay Bernard René Jourdan, marquis de Launay (1740–1789) was the French governor of the Bastille, the
Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano 22 December 1792 – all hope of an accommodation was, however, in vain. After the execution of Bourbon King Louis XVI (21 January 1793), the chief French diplomatic agent, Bernard-François de Chauvelin, was ordered to leave Britain, while the National Convention declared war (1 February 1793 – "see Campaigns of 1793 in the French Revolutionary Wars"). These events limited the impact of Maret's second mission to London in January 1794. After a space in which he held no diplomatic post, he became Ambassador of the French Republic to the Kingdom of Naples; but, while negotiating with Charles de Simonville he