PYAT, FELIX (1810-1889), French communard, was born at Vierzon (Cher) on Oct. 4, 181o, the son of a Legitimist lawyer. Called to the bar in Paris in 1831, he threw his whole energies into journalism. The violent personalities of a pamphlet entitled Marie Joseph Chenier et le prince des critiques (1844), in reply to Jules Janin, brought him a six months' sojourn in La Pelagie, in the cell quitted by Lamennais. In 1848 George Sand, whom he had introduced in 1830 to the staff of the Figaro, now asked Ledru-Rollin to make him commissary-general of the Cher. After three months' tenure of this office he was returned by the depart ment to the Constituent Assembly, where he voted with the Mountain, and brought forward a motion for the abolition of the presidential office. About this time he fought a duel with Proud hon, who had called him the "aristocrat of the democracy." He joined Ledru-Rollin in the attempt of June 13, 1849, after which he sought refuge in Switzerland, Belgium, and finally in England. For a glorification of regicide at the time the Orsini attempt against Napoleon III. he was brought before an English court, but acquitted, and the general amnesty of 1869 permitted his return to France, but further outbursts against the authorities compelled his return to England. The revolution of Sept. 4
brought him back to Paris, and it was he who in his paper Le Combat displayed a black-edged announcement of the pourparlers for the surrender of Metz. After the insurrection of Oct. 31, he was imprisoned for a short time. In Jan. 1871, Le Combat was suppressed, only to be followed by an equally virulent Vengeur. Elected to the National Assembly, he retired from Bordeaux with Henri Rochefort and others until such time as the "parricidal" vote for peace should be annulled. He returned to Paris to join the committee of public safety, and, in Hanotaux's words, was the Ome ulceree of the Commune, but was blamed for the loss of the fort of Issy. He was superseded there by Delescluze, but he continued to direct the violent acts of the Commune, the over throw of the Vendome column, the destruction of Thiers's residence and of the expiatory chapel built to the memory of Louis XVI. He escaped across the frontier, and, though con demned to death in 1873, the amnesty of July 188o permitted his return. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1888, but died at Saint-Gratien on Aug. 3, 1889.