Marseillaise (3 syl.)

The grand song of the French Revolution. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an artillery officer in garrison at Strasbourg, composed both the words and the music for Dietrich mayor of the town. On July 30th, 1792, the Marseillaise volunteers, invited by Barbaroux at the instance of Madame Roland, marched to Paris singing the favourite song; and the Parisians, enchanted with it, called it the Hymne des Marseillais. (Rouget born 1760, died 1835.)