apolitan troops. Some died fighting; nine were shot
at Cosenza, including the Bandieras, Mori, Ricciotti and Nardi.
Boccheciampi the Corsican, whom they suspected of treason, was brought
up to be confronted with them during the trial; when asked if he knew
who he was, Nardi replied: 'I know no word in my divine Italian
language that can fitly describe that man.' Boccheciampi was condemned
to a nominal imprisonment; when he came out of prison he wrote to a
Greek girl of Corfu, to whom he was engaged, to join him at Naples,
that they might be married. The girl had been deeply in love with him,
and had already given him part of her dowry, but she answered: 'A
traitor cannot wed a Greek maiden; I bear with me the blessing of my
parents; upon you rests the curse of God.'

The martyrdom of the Bandieras made a great impression, especially in
England, where the circumstance came to light that their
correspondence with Mazzini had been tampered with in the English
Post Office, and that information as to their plans had reached the
Austrian and Neapolitan Governments through the British Foreign
Office. The affair was brought before the House of Commons by Thomas
Duncombe. The Home Secretary repeated a calumny which had appeared
many years before in a French newspaper, to the effect that the murder
of an Italian in Rodez by two of his fellow-countrymen was the result
of an order from the Association of Young Italy. Sir James Graham had
to apologise afterwards for 'the injury inflicted on Mr Mazzini' by
this statement, which he was obliged to admit was supported by no
evidence, and was contrary to the opinion of the Judge who tried the
case.

The _Times_ having observed in a leading article that the gravity of
the fact in question, the violation of private correspondence in the
Post Office, was not affected by the merits or demerits of Mr Mazzini,
of whom it professed to 'know nothing,' Thomas Carlyle wrote next day
a letter containing words which may be quoted as some of the best and
truest ever written about the great Italian: 'I have had the honour to
know Mr Mazzini for a series of years, and, whatever I may think of
his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great
freedom testify that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of
genius and virtue, one of those rare men, numerable unfortunately but
as units in this world, who are worthy to be called martyr souls; who
in silence, piously in their daily li