Orsini, FELICE

Orsini, FELICE, conspirator, was born in December 1819, at Meldola, in the States of the Church, and studied at Bologna. He belonged to a branch of a noble family, long famous as supporters of the Guelfic party, which produced famous scholars, soldiers, and churchmen (including two popes, Nicholas III. and Benedict XIII.). Felice, the son of a conspirator, was early initiated into secret societies, and in 1844 was sentenced at Rome to the galley for life. The amnesty of Pius IX. (1846) restored him to liberty, but he was soon again imprisoned for participation in political plots. When the revolution of 1848 broke out Orsini was elected a deputy to the Roman Constituent Assembly, and, invested with extraordinary powers, was sent to Ancona and Ascoli to suppress brigandage. He signalised himself by the violence with which he executed his commission. He also took part in the defence of Rome and Venice; agitated in Genoa and the duchy of Modena; and in 1853 was shipped by the Sardinian government to England, where he formed close relations with Mazzini. Furnished with money by the leaders of the revolutionary party, he appeared at Parma in 1854, and afterwards at Milan, Trieste, Vienna, everywhere agitating in the interest of insurrection; until at last he was arrested at Hermannstadt, and confined in the fortress of Mantua. In 1856 he succeeded in making his escape, and found refuge in England, where he supported himself by public lecturing, and wrote Austrian Dungeons in Italy (1856). Towards the end of 1857 he repaired to Paris, with the intention of assassinating Napoleon III., whom he reckoned the great obstacle to the progress of revolution in Italy. His associates in this diabolical design were persons named Pieri, Rudio, and Gomez. They took up their station in a house close by the Opera, and on the evening of the 14th January 1858, just as the carriage containing the emperor and empress was drawing up, they threw three bombs under it. An explosion took place, and 10 persons were killed, 156 wounded, but Napoleon and the empress remained unhurt. The assassins were arrested, tried, and sentenced; Orsini, Pieri, and Rudio, to capital punishment, Gomez to penal servitude for life. Rudio's life was spared at the intercession of the empress, but Pieri and Orsini were guillotined on 13th March. See Memoirs and Adventures of Orsini, written by himself (Eng. trans. Edin. 1857); his Letters (2 vols. Milan, 1861); and a work by Montazio (1862).