Orsini Felice

Orsini, Felice (1819-58), an Italian revolutionist, in 1838 took up the study of law, and went to Bologna, where Mazzini's party of Young Italy enlisted his active sympathies. He and his father took part in the rising of 1843, and Felice was condemned to the galleys for life, but was pardoned later. In 1848 he fought in the service of the Venetian Republic and, when disturbances broke out in Rome, became a member of the Roman Assembly. On the failure of the movement he retired to Genoa and Nice and, as an ardent Mazzinist, was constantly in the political movements of the time. At Mantua in 1855 he was condemned to death, but escaped in 1856 to London, where he published Austrian Dungeons in Italy. Later he joined with others in an attempt to assassinate Napoleon III. when he, with the Empress, was returning from the opera. For this attempt, which caused some loss of life, he was executed.