Marseillaise

mar-sa-yaz', the song of the French Revolution. In 1792, when a column of volunteers was about to march from Strasburg, the mayor of the city gave a banquet in their honor. He asked an officer of artillery, Rouget de Lisle, to compose a song for the occasion. The young man, being fired with enthusiasm for the Revolutionary cause, composed both song and music in a single night. He called it the war song of the army of the Rhine. It was a complete success. It was sung at the banquet with such enthusiasm that the column of 600 men was swelled by volunteers to 1,000 on the spot. The army of the north and eastern France took up the song. The Parisians heard it for the first time when an enthusiastic column of Marseilles youth reached the city. The populace went wild over the song and, ignorant of its real authorship, called it the Marseillaise. It is the national anthem of France.