French general, born at the castle of Cluzel, in Auvergne, in 1739; died in London on the 14th of November 1800. At the age of fourteen he entered the army, and served with distinction in Germany during the Seven Years’ War, and in 1768 was appointed governor of the island of Guadeloupe, and afterward commander-in-chief of all the French forces in the West Indies. When war broke out in 1778, he took successively, from the British, Dominica, Tobago, St. Eustache, Saba, St. Martin, St. Christopher’s and Nevis. He was nominated by Louis XVI., in 1787–88, as a member of the Assembly of Notables, and in 1790 he was made commander-in-chief of the army of the Meuse, the Saar and the Moselle. For his share in the attempted escape of Louis XVI. he was obliged to flee from France, and in 1791 entered the service of Gustavus III. of Sweden, and afterwards served in the corps of the Prince of Condé. He subsequently went to England, where his advice in West Indian affairs was useful to the government, and where he wrote Mémoires sur la Révolution Française.
