Governor of the Bastille nine years after his birth. He was a Black Musketeer of the King, officer in the Gardes Françaises until 1763-1764, then captain of a cavalry regiment. During the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, De Launay was arrested and escorted to the town hall by one of the leaders of the Revolution, Pierre-Augustin Hulin. In the Place de Greve the furious crowd attacked the escort, assaulting and eventually beheading Governor Launay. After the capture of the fortress, Prosper Soulès assumed the interim duties of acting commander. Governor of the Bastille The Bastille or Bastille Saint-Antoine was completed in
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution remarks: "He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird". Slavin finds it "regrettable that such a capable historian as Schama [...] should be so prejudiced against the Revolution". Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution is a book by the historian Simon Schama, published in 1989, the bicentenary of the French Revolution. <br>"The terror," declared Schama in the book, "was merely 1789 with a higher body count; violence ... was not just an unfortunate side effect ... it was the Revolution's source of collective energy. It was what made the Revolution revolutionary."