The song which has immortalized him the Marseillaise, was composed at Strassburg, where Rouget de Lisle was quartered in April 1792.
The piece was at first called Chant de guerre de l'armee du Rhin, and only received its name of Marseillaise from its adoption by the Provençal volunteers whom Barbaroux introduced into Paris, and who were prominent in the storming of the Tuileries.
His Essais en vers et en prose (1797) contains the Marseillaise, a prose tale of the sentimental kind called Adelaide et Monville, and some occasional poems.
The duet, "Amour sacre de la patrie," was welcomed like a new Marseillaise; sung by Nourrit at Brussels in 1830, it became the signal for the revolution which broke out there.
This song, set to music by Auber, was on the lips of every Frenchman, and rivalled in popularity the Marseillaise.