Note 187 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
On the 15th of November, 1848, Count Rossi was assassinated on entering the Chamber of Deputies at its first sitting. No effort was made by the bystanders or Assembly to seize the culprit. At night the streets rang with the chorus—
"Benedetta quella mano Che il tiranno pugnalò!"
It has been our study to exclude from these pages all allusion to modern politics, or to events as yet untested by time. But when outrages such as this are perpetrated in broad day, and applauded by a people, it becomes all men to protest against lessons calculated to annihilate civilisation, and to reproduce the worst features of the dark ages.