before the commencement of it, and it was especially cruel as involving ingratitude for the continued services rendered by Tunis to France. For fifty years the European nations had refused the extradition of political prisoners, but Tunis always surrendered fugitives from Algeria, maintaining complete neutrality in all troublesome times, especially during 1870. France ignored this now. He should exert himself to second the Bey’s efforts to maintain order, but he was certain that his teachings would be almost powerless, especially among the tribes of the interior when homes, crops, and herds were destroyed. If no other European nation had an interest in Tunis, he hoped that justice and humanity would prompt a friendly intervention. The Tunisians knew how the English press had been just to them in their sore trial, and should not easily forget it. The next chapter will show how much Muhamed es Sadek, Mustapha Ben Ismael, and Ahmed Ben Khoja were mistaken in their estimate of European justice and humanity. CHAPTER XXI. AT KASR-ES-SAID. Muhamed es Sadek, Bey of Tunis, has two brothers, who, according to the local law of succession, are one after the other the rightful heirs to the throne. Ali the elder was born in 1817, and Muhamed Taib, the younger, four years later. They both live in stucco-fronted palaces at the Marsa, receive an ample income from the State Treasury as princes of the blood, are surrounded by a little band of courtiers and dependants, and appear on public occasions in all the glory of their diamond decorations. Ali is shrewd and rich, Taib is poor and credulous, and both of them inwardly hate the French with their whole heart. The heir- apparent is entitled to a _vizier_ of his own, and in the person of Sy Tahar Zouch he enjoyed the services of one of the cleverest and most capable men in the Regency. Both Ali and Taib had physicians- extraordinary attached to their persons, and I have already explained the influence which these functionaries are able to acquire. The stubbornness of Muhamed es Sadek concerning the Protectorate, had, at a comparatively early stage of the Tunisian question, induced M. Roustan to see what terms could be made elsewhere in case of necessity. Overtures were in the first instance made to Ali Bey through Sy Tahar Zouch, but neither one nor the other would entertain the proposals, and M. Roustan never forgot or forgave the rebuff. Sy Taib was a happy man amongst his greenhouses, his orange-trees, and his early lettuces, till M. Roustan held out to him the prospect of a crown. In his medical attendant M. Burguet, M. Roustan found a zealous ally, and Taib was soon persuaded that the throne overshadowed by the Protectorate was better than nothing at all. In a weak moment he consented to supplant his brother in the best interests of the mission of civilisation, and a French passport was given to him for the protection of his person, for