After being implicated in revolutionary plots, he was condemned in 1844 to life imprisonment. He was later pardoned by Pius IX but took part in Italy in the Revolutions of 1848. In 1849 he joined Mazzini in Rome and then went to Hungary, where he was arrested. After his escape in 1854 he formed a plot to assassinate Napoleon III, seen as the principal obstacle to Italian independence. His attempt to blow up the imperial carriage failed (14 January 1858) and he was executed.