The following year was not less disastrous for the Regency. The absence of rain, which commenced in 1866, continued, and the complete failure of the crops engendered first famine and then typhus. Italy now in turn threatened an interruption of diplomatic relations, because the Bey refused to pay the debts of the Tunisian princes, although their creditors had been again and again warned of the risk they were running. After much negotiations, an actual rupture was only prevented by the Bey paying about thirty per cent. on the total sum claimed. Mr. Wood was unfortunately absent, when, in September, the tribes around Beja once more raised the standard of revolt. Troops had no sooner been sent to the disaffected districts, when the news spread that Muhamed es Sadek’s younger brother, Adil Bey, had left his palace at the Marsa to place himself at the head of the insurgents. Sidi Adil was betrayed and fell into the hands of Ali Bey. He was brought a prisoner to Tunis, and died of “a rheumatic fever, caught by imprudent exposure in the Beja mountains,” on the 5th November. It is popularly supposed he was poisoned, but the evidence is exceedingly contradictory. Sidi Adil was never a robust man, but persons who knew him represent him as being by far the most intelligent and patriotic of the sons of Hussein Bey. He indulged in dreams of becoming the real leader of the Arab tribes, but he wholly failed in his attempt to realise them. The Bey now conceived that a widespread conspiracy existed against his person, and his suspicions were shared and fostered by Muhamed Khaznadar, who had held the office of Prime Minister for over thirty years. On the 5th September, General Sy Reschid and General Sy Ismael Sunni, two of the most prominent members of the Beylical Council, were arrested in their houses, dragged to the Bardo, and strangled by the common executioner. The city gates were shut during the perpetration of this outrage, and before any of the European Consuls could leave Tunis, both the victims had ceased to live. No occurrence had caused such widespread disapprobation since the judicial murder of the Jew Sfez ten years before. Mr. Werry at once repaired to the Bardo to remonstrate with the Bey. Muhamed es Sadek declared that he had ample proof of the guilt of the accused, and that, as the constitution had not been again put in force since its suspension in 1864, he was not bound to bring them to trial.