I have received your telegrams respecting the explanations desired by the Bey. Be good enough to declare to His Highness that we appreciate the faithful friendship of which he has so often assured us, and of which we have now to ask for tangible proofs. A serious peril threatens the integrity of our territory and the safety of the inhabitants living there under the protection of our laws. That peril springs from the insubordinate tribes occupying a portion of the Bey’s state, and against whom an imperative duty of legitimate defence forces us to act with vigour. We cannot unfortunately reckon on the Bey’s authority to reduce these tribes, with the requisite energy and promptitude, to a state of submission rendering them henceforth harmless; but we have a right to count on the Bey’s military forces to assist us in the work of necessary repression. Our generals consequently receive orders to come to a friendly understanding with the officers of the Tunisian troops, and to give them notice of the moment when the exigencies of strategic movements will induce them _to borrow for their operations Tunisian territory either near La Calle or in the Medjerdah Valley_. It is as allies and auxiliaries of the Bey’s sovereign authority that the French soldiers will prosecute their march. It is also as allies and auxiliaries that we hope to meet the Tunisian soldiers with the reinforcement with which we intend definitively to punish the misdeeds of the common enemies of the Bey and ourselves. On receipt of these communications a council of state was at once convened. The Bey sent an urgent message to ask Mr. Reade to come to the Bardo, which was immediately complied with. “What am I to do?” asked Muhamed es Sadek. “M. Roustan has, I fear, got me here” (clasping his throat). Mr. Reade strongly urged on the Bey the necessity of proving his ability to preserve order by at once sending an army to the frontier under the command of the heir-apparent, in order to obviate all further ground of complaint on the part of France. The Bey demurred on the plea of an empty treasury, but as the council supported the plan proposed, the Government cashier offered to advance the necessary funds. A week later Ali Bey started for the frontier with several thousand men. From this moment the Bey seemed to take the whole direction of affairs into his own hands, and even Mustapha lost all real influence with him. The council sat for several hours in the Kasr-es-Said Palace, and the Bey himself dictated a long telegraphic despatch to the Sultan, and personally supervised the draft of the following letter to M. Roustan:— _April 9th.—Muhamed es Sadek to M. Roustan._