During the revolution he took part in the Royalist 13 Vendémiaire uprising against the Republic, at one stage confronting Napoleon Bonaparte himself, and he mentions this often in conversation.
In 1795, he managed to cancel the condemnation to death-in-absentia weighing on his friend, the comte de Vaublanc, (who would be the ultra-royalist Minister of the Interior in 1816), because of his involvement in the royalist insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire IV (5 October 1795).
His was instrumental in crushing the Royalist insurgency known as the 13 Vendémiaire, and the important place he occupied at the beginning of the period is indicated by the fact that he was elected by twenty-seven départements as member of the Council of Five Hundred, and became its first president.
Shortly after being freed from prison, Antonelle sided with the National Convention during the insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire.
13 Vendémiaire was one such occasion, this was pivotal in the rise of Napoleon.