FIESCHI, Joseph Marie (1790-1836), assassin, the chief conspirator in the attempt on the life of Louis Philippe in July 1835, was a native of Murato in Corsica, and was baptized there. December 3, 1790. After following his father’s occupation, that of a shepherd, he enlisted at the age of eighteen in the Corsican Legion at Naples, and passed with it into the service of Murat, king of Naples. In 1814 he returned to Corsica, and in the following year took part in the fatal expedition of Murat for the recovery of his crown. Sentence of death was passed on him and his companions, but it was not executed; and Fieschi once more returned to his native land. In 1816 he was convicted of theft and forgery, and was condemned to imprisonment for ten years. After his release he led for several years a restless miserable life, working only by fits, and eking out his resources by fraud and swindling. He went to Paris after the Revolution of July (1830), and by means of forged papers passed himself off as a victim of the Restoration, and obtained a pension and official employment. He affected a zealous devotion to the Government, entered the police, and displayed much energy in the suppression of disturbances. But meanwhile bis house was the scene of violent proceedings, and the neighbourhood was kept in alarm by frequent noises, cries, and pistol-shots in and around it. Facts were brought to light which cost him his friends and his employments. Exasperated by dismissal and the “ingratitude of the Government,” he vowed a terrible vengeance. He took lodgings on the Boulevard du Temple, and there, with several infamous confederates, contrived his “infernal machine,” constructed with twenty gun barrels, to be fired simultaneously. In July 1835 the fifth anniversary of the ...