He launched an attack on the Paris Hotel de Ville in 1839. Sentenced to death, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. A brief period of freedom allowed him to lead the republicans in the Revolution of 1848. He remained in prison until 1859, was re-arrested in 1861, and escaped to Belgium in 1865, where he organized the extremist republican opposition to Napoleon III. He was imprisoned in 1871, after attempting to overthrow the French provisional government. His influence over the Commune of Paris was considerable. He died in 1881, two years after being finally released from prison.