2-888-113 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Carnival at Rome - Explosion of a Hand-Grenade in the Carriage of the Prince of Musignano, 1850. 'Giuseppe Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, had received several anonymous letters, threatening his death if he appeared in the Carnival. In defiance...the Prince went to the Carnival...On Saturday, the 9th, the anniversary of the Roman Republic...the Corso was deserted, except by the French, a few foreigners, and the myrmidons of the Government. Rather late in the evening a hand grenade was thrown into the Prince of Musignano's carriage. In exploding, it severely wounded Giuseppe and his sister, about seventeen years of age, who was in the carriage with him. This diabolical act was committed at the corner of the Cafe Nerous, close to the Piazza of San Lorenzo in Lucina. The person suspected has been arrested: he is a student of the Hospital of St. James, on the Corso'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.