A noble officer commissioned at thirteen who had served through the Seven Years’ War and reached maréchal de camp in 1788, Marcé commanded the military division at Nantes from 1792. Sent against the insurrection with a column of about twelve hundred men, he retook Chantonnay on 17 March 1793 and two days later was destroyed near Saint-Vincent-Sterlanges, in the engagement long miscalled Pont-Charrault, when his troops were caught strung out in a wooded valley between two broken bridges. He was dismissed on the spot by the representatives on mission and arrested the same evening. Accused of treason and held for nine months, he was condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal for treason, negligence and unworthiness, and guillotined on 29 January 1794. Historians now attribute the defeat to the poverty of republican means rather than to any betrayal.