The leading spirit in the Milanese movement, so far as it is possible to single out any individual, was Augusto Anfossi. He had been born in Nice and educated by the Jesuits. That education, in this as in so many other cases, had produced the most violent reaction; and Anfossi's first claim to distinction was a bitter attack on his former teachers. In consequence of this, he had been compelled to fly to France; and he had served for a time in the French Army; but his hopes had been raised by the accession of Charles Albert; and he had returned to Piedmont to experience the disappointment shared by the other Liberals of that period. The punishments which followed the risings of 1831 had driven him again into exile; and he had then joined in the rising of the Egyptians against the Turks. But the movements of 1848 once more called his attention to Piedmont; and he now hastened to Milan and drew up a proclamation which was adopted and issued by the leaders of the insurrection. How little these leaders could have foreseen the actual result of the struggle may be gathered from the contents of the proclamation; for, eloquent and enthusiastic as are its opening words, its demands fall far short of the claim for that complete independence which the Lombards were for a time to achieve; while so little did the Milanese recognize the determined savagery of their opponents that the seventh demand made in this proclamation was that "neutral relations should be established with the Austrian troops, while we guarantee to them respect and the means of subsistence." But the only really important point in the proclamation was its final summons to the people to meet at three p.m. the next day in the Corsia dei Servi; and this appeal roused not merely the hopes, but the impatience of the people.