Bandiera, ATTILIO and EMILIO

Bandiera, ATTILIO and EMILIO, two brothers of a Venetian family, lieutenants in the Austrian navy, who attempted a rising in favour of Italian independence in 1843. The attempt was a failure, and they fled to Corfu; but, misled by false information, they ventured to land in Calabria with twenty companions, believing that their appearance would be the signal for a general insurrection. One of their accomplices had betrayed them, and the party was captured at once by the Neapolitan police. Attilio and Emilio were shot along with seven of their comrades in the public square of Cosenza on the 25th July 1844. Both were men of lofty spirit, and their enthusiastic patriotism breathes in every line of their letters to Mazzini, who was then in London. The fact that these letters were opened by authority of the British government aroused much interest in England in the fate of the brothers.