M. Roustan replied that the magnanimity displayed by the French upon this occasion marked a new era in their relations with Tunis. France would develop the resources of the country, securing her preponderance, and enabling her agents to rival those of friendly nations. In the afternoon a grand review was held at Manouba in the presence of the generals, M. Roustan, the Musallis, and a crowd of Maltese and Italians. These passing gaieties were not allowed to postpone for any length of time the more serious business connected with French “protection.” Ali Bey came back to Tunis and refused to give a written promise to adhere to the terms of his brother’s convention, which the Sultan now declared by telegraph to be null and void. This refractoriness was not destined to be of long duration; the stoppage of his income soon convinced Ali Bey of the practical inconveniences of patriotism; he signed the declaration required of him, burned his ships by tearing up General Logerot’s note which he had kept as an emblem of Gallophobism, and became from that day the devoted friend and ally of France. In the course of the 16th and 17th May, M. Roustan discovered in the heart of Tunis a conspiracy which threatened alike the Bey and the Protectorate. Of course all details and evidence were superfluous, and so M. Roustan confined his action to presenting the now docile Muhamed es Sadek with a list of the proscribed traitors. By a mere coincidence it contained the names of all those persons who had been unfavourable to M. Roustan’s views during the acute stage of Tunisian politics. Arbi Zerouck, the President of the municipality, managed to escape in the middle of the night to the British Consulate-General; M. Conti was dismissed for his over-zeal in promoting fruitless appeals, and the rest of the supposed culprits avoided the same fate by “making friends with the mammon of unrighteousness,” and conciliating the presiding genius of the new _régime_. El Arby was fortunate enough to obtain permission, through Mr. Reade’s intercession two days later, to put the Mediterranean between himself and his persecutors. The patronage now at M. Roustan’s disposal was judiciously bestowed; General Elias Musalli succeeded M. Conti with the exalted rank of a Tunisian _Ferík_ or General of Division, and Sy Hsuna Meteli, the Bey’s buffoon, became President of the Tunisian municipality. A year has passed since then: Sy Hsuna has now the best carriage and finest pair of horses in Tunis, but the streets of the town have become an impassable quagmire.