I have in a former chapter spoken of the Khamírs and other tribes which inhabit the neighbourhood of the Algerian frontier. The boundary itself is tolerably well defined by a line of hills running southwards from Tabarca. The Arabs on the eastern slope of the range are subjects of the Bey of Tunis, those on the western owe allegiance to the French Republic. “I really cannot say,” said M. Panariello, “when I was at La Galle in September 1881, which of the two gives the most trouble. The Algerian Arabs are generally the thieves, and the Tunisian the receivers; they remain good friends as long as they are robbing third parties, and only quarrel when it comes to a division of the spoil. These border squabbles have occurred over and over again any time these thirty years, and nobody cared about them, _till_,” he added, “_it was convenient to do so_.” If the Tunisian Arabs have sometimes been the aggressors, scores of cases are on record in which the Algerians have wantonly violated Tunisian territory, but the Bey of Tunis never thought of invading Algeria “for the protection of _his_ frontier,” any more than France could justify the occupation of Belgium by a case of cattle- lifting having occasioned loss to some French subjects on the confines of that kingdom. While Sidi Yusef and M. Panariello were arranging for an opportune fracas on the borders, M. Roustan was very active at Tunis. Although his own _entourage_ never contained a single Frenchman, he set in motion a purely legendary _côterie_ styling itself the French colony. Before the outbreak of hostilities, there were not more than a score of French residents of position and respectability in Tunis, and yet throughout all the recent events, the utterances of half-a-dozen individuals, headed by the deputy or representative, have been treated in Europe as if they expressed the wishes, ideas, and political feelings of some large and influential body of men, having a peculiar knowledge of the difficulties of the situation, and the largest, if not the only, stake in the future of the country. About the 20th March an Address was got up by “the colony,” and presented with a silver cup to M. Roustan. The former took the extraordinary shape of a sweeping bill of indictment against the Bey of Tunis. On its publication in Europe by the good offices of the _Agence Havas_, Muhamed es Sadek (who still believed in a Christian sense of justice and the amity of nations) hoped to counteract its effect by a letter to M. Roustan, of which copies were submitted to the agents of the “friendly powers.” _“Letter of his Highness the Bey to M. Roustan, Consul-General and Chargé d’Affaires of France.”_