[1][2] The design for the Descartes class was based on the earlier cruiser Davout, but was enlarged to incorporate a more powerful gun armament.

These were supported by a secondary battery of ten 100 mm (3.9 in) guns, which were carried in sponsons, casemates, and individual pivot mounts.

[5] With the beginning of the unrest that led to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China in 1898, many European colonial powers began to reinforce their naval forces in East Asia.

[10] After the uprising broke out in China late that year, the French considerably strengthened the squadron in the Far East; by January 1901, they had assembled a force of nine cruisers, including Pascal.

[13] In April that year, Pascal joined a naval review held for the Japanese Emperor Meiji in Kobe, Japan.

[14] Pascal continued to operate in French Indochina in 1904, but she was in poor condition by that time and was unable to steam faster than 16 to 18 knots (30 to 33 km/h; 18 to 21 mph).

The three cruisers rescued a total of 27 officers and 654 enlisted saved from the two Russian ships; Pascal later evacuated them to Saigon, French Indochina.

She was to undergo a major overhaul, but a report dated 12 July determined that by the time work was completed in 1906, the military value of a reconditioned Pascal would be at best mediocre, and so the planned reconstruction was cancelled and the ship lay idle until she was decommissioned on 10 June 1909.

She was then struck from the naval register on 24 March 1910 and was placed for sale on 1 August 1911, along with several other older vessels, including the ironclads Amiral Baudin and Magenta and the unprotected cruiser Milan.