in the Government service, but a devotee of Manzoni and an ardent Liberal. He had suffered imprisonment as a "Carbonaro" after the insurrectionary movement of 1831, and he only awaited an opportunity again to identify himself with the revolutionists. This opportunity offered itself in 1848, and his active participation in the events of that and the following year led to the loss of his position. The family moved to Florence in consequence, and there Giosue was sent to the Scolopi Fathers to school.
The war of 1848-49 left an indelible impression on the boy's mind. Austria had been braved by the little kingdom of Sardinia, and though disaster and defeat had followed the gallant demonstration against the foreigner, yet through all Italy a long awakening breath had been drawn. In the eager young student of these days, whose first fourteen years had been passed in the midst of the melancholy and suggestive charm of the Tuscan "Maremma" (fens), who had learned Latin at his father's knee, and at his mother's the tragedies of Alfieri and the revolutionary poetry of Berchet, we may find a prophecy of the man. Impetuous, bitterly impatient of shams of any kind, with a devouring
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