officials. His uniform was covered in broken glass. The king and members of the royal family were told that they had escaped an assassination attempt. The king asked if anybody had been hurt and then continued his day. All three shots missed, although one smashed the window of a carriage of Count Charles d'Oultremont, who was almost killed. The king was saved by M. J. Bernard from Bar-le-duc who successfully disarmed Rubino. Paul van den Bosch, from Liege, caught Rubino by his throat and handed him to the police. The police put Rubino in a cab, which was immediately surrounded by an angry mob. The police had great difficulty in forcing their way through the crowd, which shouted alternately, "Kill him!" and "Long live the King!" At the police station, Rubino was searched and found to be carrying a package of ball cartridges and picture postcards bearing portraits of King Leopold, Prince Albert, and Princess Elisabeth. Rubino said he procured the cards so he would be able to recognize the members of the royal family. He also said he did not regret his act and would have fired "at the King of Italy as readily as at the King of Belgium, because monarchs are tyrants who cause the misery of their peoples." He also asserted that he had no accomplices, although several people who were near Rubino when he fired the revolver asserted that he was accompanied by another man who escaped among the crowd. Following the attempted assassination, anarchists further condemned Rubino as an agent provocateur, with some even speculating that the entire event was staged in order to justify subsequent police crackdowns against European anarchists. This speculation was fueled by early reports that the unfired cartridges left in Rubino's revolver were blanks. This was contradicted by later reports that Rubino's revolver was never found by the police. Trial and imprisonment After the attempt he was sent to the prison of Saint Gilles, where he received three glasses of beer for dinner and some bread. He was questioned by the Examining magistrate M. J. Count d'Oultremont. Rubino chose Émile Royer, a socialist who had previously defended the anarchist Jules Moineau, as his lawyer. There was an issue: because the grand Marshall of the royal Court count Charles d'Oultremont was related to Examining magistrate M. J. d'Oultremont, he had to be replaced by Mr. van Nerom to respect a neutral