Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-05-29
Attempts to Assassinate Louis Napoleon.

It was in 1852 that this sovereign's
life was tried for the first time, and an
other attempt was made upon it by a
Radical shoemaker in 1858. This year
-1S53--was prolific in regicidal out
RACES, for traitor called Libenyi tried
in February to murder the Emperor
Francis Joseph at Vienna, while in
March a soldier sought to dispose of
the reigning Duke Of Parma, Charles
LII. Three years passed now without
any more crimes of this sort; but in
1856 Napoleon Ill. was twice put in
peril of his life, both his aggressors
Pianori and Bellamare) being italians.
1t is said that after the attempt of Bel
lamare the Emperor took to wearing a
skirt of mail under his linen. It was
not, however, until after the fearful en-
terprise of Orsini, on January IA, 1858,
that he got to be so seriously unnerved
as to live in constant dread of assassina-
ton. Count Felice Orsini was not
mere vulgar fanatic, but gentleman
by birth, education and fortune. An
ardent patriot, and partisan of the
unihcation of Italy, his grudge against
Napoleon LII. was that the latter, when
political lefugee in Italy, had joined
a Free Masonic lodge, and sworn oaths
which, by and by, as Emperor, he had
neglected to fulfill. Principally as re-
CARDS Rome, Orsini was furious at see
ing the temporal power of the Pope
maintained by French garrison of
$4,000 men, and two years before at
tempting Napoleon life he wrote anon
ymously to warn him that the Carbona-
TO lodges had decreed his death and
that the sentence would infallibly be
carried out if the imperial policy to-
ward Italy were not altered. Had
Count Orsini's accomplices-Pierri, Ru-
dio, and Gomez-been men of his met
tie and determination, the attempt
against Napoleon on the night of Jan.
IA, 1858, must have been crowned with
success; but they were. poor ignorant
cravens, who did their work for pay,
not from conviction, and their hearts
failed them at the critical moment
Each of them had been provided with
two explosive shells which We're to be
thrown under the Emperor's carriage
as it drove up to the opera. Orsini
threw his two shells and Pierri one, but
the other two men ran off in fright
when they heard the first explosion.
The damage done by the shells was
ghastly. Five people were killed out
right and nine wounded; all the soldiers
of the mounted escort were bruised or
scratched; the Emperor's coachman fell
off his box stunned on to the carcass of
one of his horses who lay dead, and one
of the footmen was blown twenty yards
off, with his skull battered in. Mean
while, hundreds of panes of glass in the
street had been smashed. all the gas
lamps were extinguished and in the
darkness there resounded an appalling
tumult of plunging horses and shrieking 9
women. Lanterns and torches had to
be brought out of the opera, and then
it was seen that the Imperial coach was
complete wreck. How the Emperor
and Empress managed to escape, with
not so much as singed hair or cut
finger, is nothing short of marvellous.
Apparently not daunted in the least by
what had happened, the Empress said
to the Emperor, 1--WE must go into the
house to show them we are not afraid, :"
and few minutes later the entry of the
Imperial couple into their box became
the signal for a magnificent ovation, all
the spectators rising en- masse and
cheering to the echo. Neverthe-
less, from this time Napoleon Ill was
an altered man. In the following year
| he undertook the war against Austria
for the liberation of Italy, and ever
| afterward he went in fear of his life.
| Not coward's s fear, for he was thor
oughly brave man, but a fear which the
French call craiaate raiso,s'see. He ex-
pected to be murdered, and took the
minutest precautions to insure that the
Government should be carried on by a
strong regency in case of his demise
He never went out without leaving di-
rections as to where the latest copy of
his will was to be found; and at times,
when he was in low spirits, he used to
say that he had dreamed he should be
assassinated within such and such a
time. During the remainder of his
reign all Italians visiting France were
required to exhibit passports. and if not
persons of undoubted responsibility,
were closely watched till an excuse was
found for expelling them from the