Son of Jean Forgues Path and Anne-Bertrand Thomas de la Marche, he came to Paris, at twelve years old, studying at the College Louis-le-Grand and then to law school.
[7] He was the first Secretary General of the Committee of Public Safety of The Mountain, dominated by Danton and Barère then, at the request of Jean-Nicolas Pache, was appointed Deputy Minister of War Bouchotte, 5th Division, on 9 May 1793.
His name appears not only in the English ministerial papers - particularly those of Lord Grenville - but also in the letter from the Foreign Office to Perrégaux asking 'Chemin-Deforgues' - (spelling adopted during the Revolution) - to promote disorder and "push the Jacobins in paroxysms of fury".
With the endorsement of Barère, he was paid by the British government, among others, to counter the business of United Irishmen and disrupted services by untimely hiring, as he employed Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte at the Department of War.
On 14 Germinal, the warrant for his arrest was signed by du Barran, Élie Lacoste, Vadier, Moyse Bayle, Robespierre, Prieur de la Côte-d'Or, Barère - (his friend) - Saint-Just, Amar, Carnot and Collot d'Herbois; he wrote to the "Incorruptible", attributing his imprisonment as a result of his intimacy with Danton.
He "matures" somehow, and having to be diplomatic for his own interests, he was appointed in October 1799, at the Anglo-Russian invasion, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Batavian Republic, where he attended and succeeded Florent Guiot.