Generally considered the greatest French poet of the 18th century. His work was scarcely published until 25 years after his death, at age 31, by guillotine. His classical verse was augmented by political satire. "Two obscure agents of the Committee of Public Safety,,,were in search of a marquise who had fled, but an unknown stranger was found in the house and arrested on suspicion of being the aristocrat they were searching for. This was Chénier, who had come on a visit of sympathy....In prison he...composed his most famous poem, "Jeune captive," a poem at once of enchantment and of despair, inspired by the misfortunes of his fellow captive the duchesse de Fleury, née Aimée de Coigny. It is possible that the French government remembered Chénier as the author of the venomous verses in the Journal de Paris and had him tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal for that reason." He was executed. Robespierre was seized by the National Convention only two days later.