D'Abancourt was born in
Douai, and was the nephew of
Charles Alexandre de Calonne. He was Louis XVI's last
minister of war (July 1792), and organised the defence of the
Tuileries Palace during the
10 August attack. Commanded by the
Legislative Assembly to send away the
Swiss Guards, he refused, and was arrested for treason to the nation and sent to
Orléans to be tried. At the end of August the Assembly ordered Abancourt and the other prisoners at Orléans to be transferred to Paris with an escort commanded by
Claude Fournier, nicknamed ''l'Americain''. At
Versailles they learned of the
massacres at Paris. Abancourt and his fellow-prisoners were murdered in cold blood during the
9 September massacres (9 September 1792) at Versailles. Fournier was unjustly charged with complicity in the crime. ==Notes==