and send it to Constantinople _viâ_ Sicily by the Palermo mail on the next day. The message was accordingly despatched:— _Bey of Tunis to Grand Vizier._ The French forces, of which I had announced the arrival at Jedeida, approached on Thursday evening the central seat of my authority, and their commander, accompanied by a detachment of cavalry, came to my residence, and proposed to me to sign a treaty of peace imposed by France. He gave me four hours to consider, and declared that he would not withdraw till he had received an answer. Seeing myself under the pressure of an army near the centre of my authority, I was obliged to sign the treaty without having examined or discussed it, in order to save my honour and avert bloodshed. I notified at the same time to the commander that I acted under pressure and compulsion. On the following morning the Bey inaugurated the new régime by investing General Bréart with the grand cordon of the Nichán. The sullen dissatisfaction of the townspeople could not be mistaken, and while General Bréart was still at the Bardo, a deputation came there to ask for some authentic information as to what had really been done. Mustapha and General Musalli received it. “Is it true,” asked an old scent-seller at the head of it, “that Tunis has been sold to France?” “Nothing could be further from the fact,” answered Mustapha, “the Khamírs having beaten the French, the latter have taken refuge under the shadow of the palace walls, and we are giving them bread until they go back to their own country.” Two days later M. Roustan was named Minister Plenipotentiary of the First Class and Minister Resident at Tunis, and Signor Cairoli’s cabinet was a second time overturned at Rome as a censure on his conspicuous diplomatic defeat. CHAPTER XXII. THE EARLY DAYS OF THE PROTECTORATE. My next three chapters treat of contemporaneous events which happened within a short time of the conclusion of the Kasr-es-Said Treaty in different parts of the Regency. While M. Roustan was endeavouring to turn his new position to the best advantage, the Bey, as might be expected, spared no effort to conceal the nakedness of the land from his outraged subjects. In the first place, a Tunisian version of General Bréart’s interviews with Muhamed es Sadek duly appeared in the Government Gazette. This extraordinary document contrasts strangely with the patriotic utterances of three days before. NOTICE. _Praise be to God._