Seven days after M. Roustan received the Bey’s letter, some sort of disturbance took place on the frontier, and the hitherto unknown Khamírs suddenly became famous throughout Europe. What really happened on the eventful 30th March near the confines of Khamír-land nobody will probably ever know exactly until we have the pleasure of reading the autobiography of either Yusef Ben Ali or M. Panariello. Fate unexpectedly came to M. Roustan’s aid, and while a few Khamír horrors were being hastily got together, Colonel Flatters perished with his mission in a real massacre far away in the Sahara. The two events became hopelessly confused, Colonel Flatters and the Khamírs were at once bracketed together under the common head of “Horrible Outrages” (_Observer_, April 3d, 1881), and everybody made up their minds that the “drapeau menacé de la France” (M. Roustan’s speech to the French “colony,” March 20th) must be promptly and efficiently avenged. While the newsboards of London and Paris were covered with the legends, “French Expedition against Tunis,” “Daring Raids of Tunisian Tribes,” and “Continued Fighting on the Algerian Frontier,” the Bey of Tunis was in blissful ignorance of what had taken place. As soon as he knew his danger through the medium of foreign telegrams, he immediately despatched one of his most trusted servants at the head of a small force to investigate into the real or imaginary offences of the Khamírs. Meanwhile the Havas Agency prosecuted its campaign with almost feverish activity, and between the 1st and 4th April the Parisian press was plentifully supplied with a series of fictitious but ferocious combats. Some of these messages are really inimitable, _e.g._, in a telegram of the 1st April we read: “A Tunisian Caid has collected about 3000 men of the Kegla tribe (?) and led them to Sidi Diamessi (?) on the frontier, for the purpose of surprising, on the pretext of a conference, the French commandant in the Soukharas district. The latter, however, having been forewarned of the Caid’s intentions, succeeded in effecting his retreat.” Here is another specimen: “According to intelligence just received, numerous Tunisian subjects have left Tunis to join the Khamírs. A case containing 100 kilogrammes _of ball_ cartridges, sent to the Khamírs by Tunisian Jews, has been seized by the administration of the Tunis Railway.” The third is a still greater geographical puzzle than the others, but even this was swallowed with the rest: “It is rumoured that on the Tunisian terms being rejected, the Bey has appealed to Italy. The Khamírs are endeavouring to obstruct the road to Beja, to prevent French occupation. The Governor of Beja has demanded reinforcements from Tunis, being in fear that _his_ town would be occupied by the marauders and shelled by the French!”