Victor Henri Rochefort-Lucay, count de, popularly known as Henri Rochefoet, a French journalist, born in Paris, Jan. 30, 1830. In early life he was one of the writers of the Charivari. He held for some time an office in the department of fine arts, but after 1861 devoted himself wholly to journalism. After contributing to various papers, he was engaged to write for the Figaro at an annual salary of 30,000 francs, but in 1868 retired to save that journal from prosecution, and established the Lanterne, which was soon stopped by the government on account of its violent attacks upon the imperial family. He fled to escape imprisonment, and continued to publish the Lanterne at Brussels till August, 1869, when on his election to the legislative body he was permitted to return to Paris. In the same year he founded the Marseillaise newspaper, in which Victor Noir was a collaborator. After the assassination of the latter by Prince Pierre Bonaparte, Jan. 10, 1870, the paper was seized, and Rochefort was arrested. On the proclamation of the republic (Sept. 4) he was taken from prison by the populace. For a short time he was connected with the government of national defence.

During the siege of Paris he was president of the commission of barricades, and he established the Mot d'Ordre. On Feb. 8, 1871, he was elected as one of the representatives of Paris in the national assembly. At the establishment of the commune (March 18) he was in Paris, and he immediately took its side in the Mot d'Ordre, vehemently assailing the government of Versailles and M. Thiers personally. After an ineffectual attempt to escape shortly before its fall, he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. In September, 1872, he was temporarily released to enable him to legitimate his children by marrying their mother, who was dying, and was then transported to New Caledonia. He escaped in March, 1874, and lectured in New York for the benefit of his fellow exiles In Ireland he was rescued by the police from the mob, who regarded him as one of the murderers of the archbishop of Paris. He attempted to revive the Lanterne in London, and then in Geneva, but with no success. In conjunction with others he has written plays, and he is the author of many pamphlets and of several books, chiefly collections of his newspaper articles.

In 1875 he published at Geneva Les dépravés and a satire on MacMahon.