Since the deputies had moved from Versailles to Paris, Maxime had been living in humble lodgings in the rue Saintonge in the Marais. He continued to build his reputation during the first couple of years of the revolution but did not play a major role in the events. he continued to speak often in the Jacobins though and played an oppositional role.

It was in 1791 that Maxime's life began to change. Following the king's attempted flight the city was in uproar and many, including Maxime, called for Louis to be deposed. The Cordeliers Club members were foremost in this but the Jacobins later pulled out, leaving the Cordeliers to continue alone. They gathered in the Champs de mars for a demonstration but martial law was declared and Lafayette's soldiers opened fire on the crowd. Arrests followed and all the main speakers from all the clubs were targeted. Danton and Marat disappeared into hiding and Maxime was forced to flee from the Jacobin club.

He was hurrying along the rue Saint Honore, wondering where to go when a man hailed him. This was Duplay, a carpenter who lived in the road. Duplay was a staunch Jacobin supporter and he and his family offered to hide Maxime. The Duplay family consisted of the man, his wife and three daughters. Maxime waited till things settled down but then ended up staying with the Duplays. He had a brief and unhappy sejourn with his sister later when she and his brother moved to Paris but became ill and returned to the Duplays. He found himself at home with this surrogate family and stayed there till his death. It has been suggested that he was engaged to one of the daughters, Eleonore but they never married. While living there he also acquired his dog, Brount.

There was a continued threat of war from abroad which had begun in 1792 and continued to grow. Maxime was against going off and fighting other countries when things were still so unsure at home and in particular in Paris. He never courted the military; it would prove to be a mistake in later times. The revolutonary armies were poorly led though and could not hope to stand up to the well-organised enemy forces. Things were looking bleak and France lay open to it's enemies. It was in this time that the terrible massacres at the prisons occured with inmates slaughtered by armed bands who forced their way inside. Maxime was not in favour of this violence and had warrned the Legislative Assembly that it might happen but he was careful not to comdemn the perpetrators absolutely knowing this would lose him favour with the people.

Louis was suspect now and by the summer of 1792 Maxime and others were calling again for his removal. The monarchy was abolished in September 1792 and a new governing body was established - the Convention. Maxime was popular now with the crowds who called him by his title "L'Incorruptible" and he was the first deputy elected for Paris. He refused to accept financial rewards for his work and continued to live on his salary of 600 livres per annum. His portraits now hung in salons and letters came flooding in. Some from political admirers like the young Saint-Just and others from women with offers of marriage or saying they were naming their sons after him.

And so the Convention was in charge. There were three main parties within it - the Mountain, which was mainly the Jacobins and Cordeliers, their seats high up, the Girondins and the plain. The plain were committed to no particular faction and it was their support for either the Girondins or the Mountain that decided things. To begin with the Convention was mainly controlled by the Girondin faction, but by the summer of 1793 it was the Jacobins and the Paris factions that held sway. Robespierre was at his height.

Robespierre became a prominent member of the Convention and, like many, voted in favour of the death penalty at the trial of Louis XVI, now Louis Capet. Louis was guillotined on 21 January 1793.