“_July 5th._—Ali Ben Hlifa yesterday sent messengers to all the coast towns explaining the action he had taken, and asking for aid. The Arabs are working hard at a ditch and other defences, and the Council of Forty condemns people to death for the smallest offences against person or property. It has been arranged that if an attack takes place, Muhamed Khemoun[4] will be president of the tribunal. All the carpenters in the town are employed in making carriages for the cannon, and relays of workmen are engaged in erecting a barricade across the front of the town. The Mitelit, Neffet, Zlass, Hamáma, and Ouerghama tribes now entirely surround the place, and other clans and fractions of clans have promised to join them, and are not far off. The chiefs exhibit letters promising not only the aid of the Tripoli tribes, _but of 10,000 Turkish troops_. A fearful responsibility rests on the authors of such communications, for the existence of which I can vouch. There is something to admire in the order preserved by the Sfaxians, although they are now in the wild excitement of a religious war; notwithstanding that the agents of the Financial Commission have abandoned entirely the collection of all local and custom-house dues, the townspeople have actually continued to enforce their payment, and have appointed suitable persons to see that no injustice is committed in this respect. A large French troop-ship arrived to-day, with soldiers on board, and another French gunboat—the ‘Pique.’ The ‘Chacal’ and the boat just arrived are approaching the shore, and the storm of a bombardment is now about to burst on the devoted heads of the brave but ignorant defenders of the City of Cucumbers.” CHAPTER XXVI. THE SHELLING OF SFAX. My readers must suppose Mr. Galea watching anxiously the operations of the French from the deck of the ‘Beshir,’ and recording what took place in the journal to which I now return. “_July 5th_, 1881, 4.10 P.M.—The ‘Chacal’ first began to bombard the town from a distance of about 2000 yards from the jetty, and the ‘Pique’ commenced firing an hour later. The Bimbashi is replying gallantly enough, but all his shot are falling short. Shells are being chiefly directed against the forts between the European _faubourg_ and the shore. At last a shot from the town actually passed between the masts of the ‘Pique,’ and shortly afterwards both ships withdrew to the outer anchorage. As far as I can see, the shore battery is nearly dismantled and the pier much damaged. At Captain Tryon’s suggestion a large number of the fugitives are leaving for Malta in the S.S. ‘Peninsulaire,’ for there is literally nothing more for them to live on here. The French fired fifty-four shots and the Tunisians seventeen this evening.