Saint-Georges returned to France the day after his matches, but he had been influenced by English abolitionism and, in 1788, was one of the founding members of the Société des amis des noirs (Society of the Friends of the Blacks). He continued to write operas but, in the wake of financial crisis and the French Revolution of 1789 , his best years in music were behind him. In August 1789, he returned to London, but this time he stayed at the Grenier's Hotel, among the finest in London, at Louis-Philippe II's expense, until he was cut off. He was again a part of George IV's circle of leisure until he was unable to pay his debts and had to accept a fencing match to cover the costs of the remainder of his stay at Grenier's. Saint-Georges returned to France in July 1790 but appears to have stopped in Lille where, lacking other sources of income, he gave a number of fencing exhibitions. Soon after the matches, Saint-Georges took ill for several weeks with pneumonia or meningitis. He was nursed back to health and adored in Lille, however, where he was able to revive his music, premiering his opera, Guillaume tout Coeur. We should not be surprised, however, by Saint-Georges's warm reception in Lille. The town had long played host to the soldiers of African descent in Saxe's army, who had been transferred there after Saxe's death in 1750. Saint-Georges was adored in Lille and, in September 1790, he was among its first citizens to join the National Guard. In September 1792, SaintGeorges was named colonel of the new unit of soldiers of colour, the Légion des américans et du Midi (Legion of the Americans and of the South). Men of colour from all over France came out of the shadows to join this regiment, and it was here that the famous French Revolutionary General of colour, Alexandre Dumas, launched his career as an officer in the army. Many of the soldiers served in the notorious fighting in the Vendée, including Dumas, but conspiracy theories and suspicion about 'counterrevolutionary' designs shadowed the revolutionary years of the early 1790s. On 25 September 1793