This, combined with the impressions made upon him during his youth in Ireland and the teachings of his father, caused Jennings to imbibe strongly the revolutionary ideals of the era.

In 1792, by personal invitation of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Jennings rejoined the French army when war broke out between France and monarchic Europe.

The infuriated and disorderly army fell back to the barrier town of Condé, which was at that time under the nominal lordship of the unfortunate Duke d'Enghien.

The Army of the North occupied positions on the banks of the Scheldt, facing a much larger opposing force jointly commanded by the Duke of York and Albany and the Prince of Coburg.

Due to his retreat at Caesar's Camp and suspicions regarding his foreign birth and relations abroad, Kilmaine was relieved of his command, discharged from the army and sent into exile to Luxembourg.

The brave General Kilmaine made his arrangements for an attack, and advanced in two columns against these two points, but he had scarcely begun to march when the enemy evacuated their camps, their rear having fired only a few musket-shots at him.

The capture of Mantua was celebrated in Paris by the firing of cannon and the erection of arches in honour of Bonaparte and Kilmaine 'the Irish Commandant of Lombardy', and a grand joy was diffused through every heart in the city on the fall of what they styled the Gibraltar of Italy, while Bonaparte, loaded with the diamonds of the vanquished corrupt Pope, and the spoils of our Lady of Loretto, pushed on to seek fresh conquests and new laurels.

Among the former were Kilmaine, Louis Alexandre Berthier, Jean Baptiste Kléber, André Masséna, Jacques MacDonald, Michel Ney, Claude Perrin Victor, and others whose names were to become famous in future wars as the marshals of the empire.

Headed by bands blaring martial music, the soldiers marched through Paris, displaying black banners inscribed with slogans such as "Descent upon England, long live the Republic!

The future Irish Republic was enthusiastically saluted by Kilmaine that night, and every confidence (though merry) expressed in the accomplishment of his most ardent desire for the magnificent emancipation of Ireland.

He wrote: "The eagerness with which our troops, both by sea and land, await the moment when, under the brave and brilliant warrior Kilmaine, they will engage the English, is the best pledge of our approaching success, and the defeat of our enemies."

And Bonaparte, to whom Kilmaine, Tone, Shee, and others of the Irish patriots turned, no longer had any sympathy for their cause, as all his efforts were now focused on the war in the East.

The French troops who surrendered were repatriated to France in exchange for British prisoners of war, but hundreds of captured United Irishmen rebels were executed.

A second attempt in September, accompanied by Napper Tandy, came to disaster on the coast of Donegal and was unable to land, before eventually returning to France.

The third and final attempt, on 12 October 1798, under Admiral Bompard, with General Hardy in command of a larger force of about 3000 men, including Wolfe Tone himself, never had a chance.

For some time the British supposed the troops were led by the commander-in-chief in person and all the press of England and Scotland teemed with blustering or scurrilous remarks on "Paddy Kilmaine and his gang".

By the end of 1798, the Army of England and its expedition were alike completely dissolved, and The Directory turned their ambition totally eastwards and to the Middle East.

The Directory's outright decision to abandon the project completely shattered all of Kilmaine's hopes of helping to achieve the independence of his native land.

He assembled a petition and wrote a brilliant letter to the President of the Executive Directory, it reads, Headquarters at Rouen 27th Brumaire, 7th year of the Republic.

His real name is Tone; that of Smith was assumed to conceal from the English Government his residence in France, and spare to his family in Ireland those persecutions which would infallibly inflict upon them.

Obliged, as he had been one of the most zealous and respectable apostles of the cause of liberty in his country, to seek a refuge from its tyrants in North America, he was called from thence, on the demand of the French Government, to co-operate with General Hoche in his first expedition to Ireland.

In the spring of 1799, the Directory appointed him supreme generalissimo of the Armée d'Helvétie, as they chose to designate Switzerland, reviving the ancient name of the people whom Julius Caesar conquered.

The 48-year-old Kilmaine accepted the command, and ignored his condition for quite some time, until his rapidly failing health forced him to give up his baton to Massena, and he was compelled to retire from active service for good.

With a sorrow which he could not conceal, he saw that army march which penetrated into the heart of the Swiss mountains and imposed on their hardy inhabitants a constitution in which Bonaparte, under the plausible title of Mediator, secured the cooperation of the valiant descendants of the Celtic tribe of Helvetii in his further schemes of conquest and ambition.

[citation needed] In a fragile condition, Kilmaine left Switzerland and returned to Passy in Paris, where his domestic issues only worsened his already poor health.

Kilmaine is historically honoured at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where his name can be seen on the inside triumphal arch, on the Northern pillar, Column 05.

In the Memoirs published by General Charles Tristan, Marquis de Montholon, he wrote of Jennings, "Brave and noble Kilmaine, being an excellent cavalry officer, had coolness and foresight, he was well fitted to command a corps of observation, detached upon those arduous or delicate commissions which require spirit, discernment, and sound judgment.

He had a great knowledge of the Austrian troops, familiar with their tactics, he did not allow himself to be imposed upon by those rumors which they were in the habit of spreading in the rear of an army, nor to be dismayed by those heads of columns which they were wont to display in every direction, to deceive as to the real strength of their forces.

One of his diary entries read, "Clarke then said there were some Irish officers yet remaining in France, who might go, and he mentioned Jennings, who used to call himself Baron de Kilmaine, God knows why.

There is a personal portrait of General Kilmaine in the 'Hotel de Ville' (City Hall) at Tonnay-Charente, where his father Dr. Theobald Jennings practiced as a physician.