‘I want to-day to do a duty which I ought to have done long ago. Among us
here is a man who has performed the greatest services both to my native
land and to freedom in general. When I was a lad and was full of vague
longings I sought a man to be my guide, the counsellor of my youth, I
sought him as a thirsty man seeks water.... I found him. He alone was
awake when all around were slumbering, he became my friend and has
remained my friend for ever; in him the holy fire of love for fatherland
and freedom has never dimmed; that man is Giuseppe Mazzini—I drink to
him, to my friend, to my teacher!’
In the voice, in the expression of face with which these words were
uttered, there was so much that gripped and thrilled the heart that they
were received not with applause but with tears.