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n Charles Augustus Howell may have claimed to have been annassociate of Felice Orsini and may have said he was implicated in thenassassination attempt on Napoleon III, but he was, as we have already seen, annotorious spinner of stories. Personally, I doubt his word and think it wasnjust another tale to boost his reputation as an adventurer. I say this becausenFelice Orsini wrote a detailed memoir and Howell is only mentioned once, andnthat is in a list of sympathisers Orsini met during his visit to England. If henhad been involved in the so-called Orsini Affair, I’m sure Orsini would havenmentioned it.
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| Felice Orsini |
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nFelice Orsini was born in 1819nand his family hoped he would join the priesthood, but he rebelled against thenchurch and became involved in the campaign for a unified Italian state, LanGiovane Italia (Young Italy), a secret society founded by Guiseppe Mazzini.nIn 1844, Orsini was captured, with his father, and condemned to lifenimprisonment but was freed by the new pope, Pius IX. He fought, withndistinction, in the First Italian War of Independence, and Mazzini sent him onna secret mission to Hungary where, in 1854, he was again arrested andnimprisoned at Mantua.
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| The Castle at Mantua |
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nWith aid from the outside, Orsini attempted severalnescapes, sometimes in ludicrous circumstances – he tried drugging his guardsnwith opium but didn’t have enough of the drug for all of them and some werenleft thinking their colleagues were simply drunk, then tried again withnsmuggled morphine but again hadn’t enough for the guards and the turnkeys. Eventuallynhe used a smuggled saw to saw through the bars and climbed down the 100-footncastle walls using a rope made from bedsheets, before disappearing disguised asna peasant.
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| An Orsini bomb |
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nIn 1856, he visited London where, with the aid of sympathisers, henprocured six bombs made to his own design. These were smuggled to Paris, wherenOrsini rendezvoused with Giuseppe Pieri, Antonio Gomez and Carlo di Rudio, hisnfellow conspirators. They devised a plan to assassinate Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), believingnthat this was the best chance of achieving a unified Italy, as a popularnuprising, first in France and then spreading to Italy would follow.
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| Napoleon III |
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nOn thenevening of January 14th 1858, Emperor Napoleon III and his wife,nEmpress Eugénie, were travelling to the Opéra Le Peletier to see Rossini’s WilliamnTell, when Orsini and his companions attacked their coach. The bombsncontained mercury fulminate, the same explosive used in percussion caps, whichnexplodes on impact (rather than needing a fuse), but the over-enthusiasticnOrsini had packed them too tight to be fully efficient. Gomez threw the firstnbomb but it went wide and landed in a group of horsemen escorting the Emperor.
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| Throwing the Bombs |
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nThe second was nearer, causing damage and destruction, and Orsini himself threwnthe third, which blew up near a policeman rushing to the Emperor’s assistance.nIn all, 156 people were injured, with three blinded, and eight people died fromntheir wounds later but the Emperor was uninjured barring a few scratches fromnflying glass and, in a masterful propaganda move, he continued on to the Opera.nOrsini was injured by a shrapnel fragment to the temple, received first aid atnthe site, and returned to his lodgings, where he was arrested the next day.
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| Throwing the Bombs |
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nFollowing their trial, Orsini and Pieri were sentenced to death and on March 13thn1858, Orsini went calmly and with dignity to the guillotine. Di Rudio was alsonsentenced to death but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with hardnlabour, the same fate as Gomez’s, on the infamous Devil’s Island. He managed tonescape from the island and made his way via British Guiana to London,nwhere he was welcomed and went on the lecture circuit, before emigrating tonAmerica in 1860.
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| Charles DeRudio |
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nHe anglicised his name to Charles DeRudio and joined the USnArmy, and fought in the American Civil War, before transferring to the 7thnCavalry, where he rose to the rank of first lieutenant. On June 25thn1876, he was part of Company A that crossed the Little Bighorn River under thencommand of Major M Reno. When Reno attacked the village of the Hunkpapa andnOglala Lokata Sioux, Company A dismounted and formed a skirmish line, coveringnReno’s retreat from the attack when overwhelming reinforcements from the tribesnthreatened to over-run them. DeRudio lost his horse and became separated,nhiding in timber undergrowth with a trooper, Private O’Neill, from where theynwitnessed Lakota women mutilate the bodies of the fallen cavalrymen. The twonmade their way, with great peril and dangerous encounters, back to Reno Hillnwhere they were again engaged in battle with the Indians.
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| Custer’s Last Stand |
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nIn total, 52% of then7th Cavalry were killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn,nincluding General George Armstrong Custer who fell at the eponymous Custer’s LastnStand. DeRudio remained in the army and attained the rank of Major, beforenretiring in 1896. He died in 1910, aged 78.
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nIf that life story doesn’t deservento be made into a film, then nobody’s does.
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