Roustan walking on the Marina parade with Madame Elias Musalli.” After this, one can hardly wonder that his passionate peroration “qui touche l’armée, touche la France,” failed even to excite the most passing enthusiasm. France now thoroughly understood the humour of the situation. Amongst the foremost in the ranks of the anti-war politicians were several leading members of the party generally described as the _extrême gauche_. M. Pelletan had worked hard at Tunis for a fortnight taking notes on his own account in October; and he afterwards published a scathing account of his experiences in the _Justice_. Although he may possibly have come across an occasional _canard_ in the course of his investigations, no man ever laboured with greater honesty of purpose or in a more patriotic spirit than Camille Pelletan. He was the first to discover the legendary character of the so-called French colony at Tunis, and was naturally indignant at ascertaining that not a single Frenchman formed part of the _entourage_ of M. Roustan. “France has been wofully deceived,” said M. Pelletan, “I will try to undeceive her;” and so he did. Some time before M. Pelletan’s visit to Tunis, Henri Rochefort had made the Tunisian question the subject of the most cutting invective. On the 27th September he published an article headed “_Le Secret de l’Affaire Tunisienne_,” which filled no less than five columns of the _Intransigeant_. The most striking passage ran as follows:— We compared the Tunisian Expedition to an ordinary fraud. We were mistaken. Cheating is an offence punished by a police magistrate. Our readers, however, will see that the Tunis business is a robbery aggravated by murder, for which the authors are amenable to an assize court.