M. Roustan’s primary endeavour was to efface the consequences of the recent defeat. The French railway for the residue of a term of ninety- nine years could not go to Goletta, but what was to prevent its being carried a couple of miles eastwards, to Rades, a village, which, like the town of Goletta, is built on the shores of the Mediterranean? A concession was demanded for a French line from Tunis to Rades. As a proof of being in earnest, the Bey was only allowed twenty-four hours to reply. The proposal was so contrary to the spirit of the original concession to the English company, that the Bey summoned up courage to reject it, and M. Roustan was obliged to withdraw his objection to the transfer to Signor Rubattino, because it was found out that after all the Bey’s consent was not a _sine quâ non_. The pressure now brought to bear on the Bey by M. Roustan and his satellites was almost unbearable. Before the end of August they obtained concessions for a harbour in the Tunis lake (which was to cost an enormous sum, and presented no other advantages than a probability of causing epidemic fever during its construction, and a tolerable certainty of killing Goletta and the Rubattino railway when completed), as well as for railways to Bizerta and Susa. It is generally believed that M. Roustan also received a formal promise that all concessions for public works in the Regency should henceforth be first offered to French capitalists.[35] Affairs remained in this unsatisfactory state till December, when we heard rumours of troops being massed on the frontiers. M. Roustan reassured the Bey with an official denial, but his words were apparently belied by the appearance of a French squadron at Goletta.