In consequence, it is the duty of each individual to preserve order everywhere, to allow of a favourable solution being arrived at with moderation and without disturbance. We recommend you not to abandon your posts, in order to prevent by your presence the people under your rule from doing any act contrary to our desire. You will enjoin this course of conduct upon them in the most urgent manner, and you will deter them from listening to interested people who wish to stir up strife. You will also explain to them the consequences which disobedience of these injunctions may entail upon them. The five Caids rode away with their message of peace, but the tribes refused to be convinced. One of these very Caids was the first to proclaim the treason of the Bey, and he is at the present moment an exile in Tripoli. Incessant rain now caused a momentary lull in the military movements, but French newspapers were not allowed to want copy. The European public were informed that “Mustapha, the Tunisian Prime Minister, being apprised of the occupation of Bizerta, summoned the principals of the religious bodies to confer with him, and they (the principals or the religious bodies?) afterwards proceeded to Kairwán, with the object, it is stated, of preaching a holy war,” and “that Signor Pestalozza, the dragoman of the Italian consulate, repaired in disguise to the camp of Ali Bey on a secret mission, and after his return conferred with General Bacouch.” Such intelligence as this may well provoke a smile now, but it was then the old story of the boys who pelted the frogs. Telegrams of this kind effectually sealed the fate of Tunis, and the long-suffering Bey acquired the reputation of a crafty and bloodthirsty fanatic. In the interval strong reinforcements disembarked at Bizerta, and by the 8th May the two brigades of Generals Maurand and Bréart were prepared to march. On that day I happened to go early to the Kasr-es-Said Palace. The excitement felt amongst its inmates had, if possible, increased since my last visit. Soon after my arrival General Bacouch entered the little saloon, used as an office on the ground-floor, with an open letter in his hand. A mounted messenger had brought it to the Bey, after a ride of fifty miles through the torrential rains of the preceding night. The missive in question was from the Khalifa or sub-governor of the rich district of Mater. In two sentences the Bey was informed that one Hmed Ben Yusef, an Algerian envoy, had arrived at Mater from Bizerta, and had invited the tribes of the province to sign a declaration “in which they acknowledged the French supremacy, and agreed to receive the French troops as brothers.” The Khalifa reported that the Mater tribes were already showing their teeth. At General Bacouch’s request I proceeded to draft the following protest to M. Roustan, although the absence of a table presented a formidable difficulty:— _The Bey of Tunis to M. Roustan (May 8th)._