It was a strange coincidence that while Mr. Levy’s servants were retreating to Tunis to escape from the ploughs and camels of their militant adversaries, the authors of the expedition were undergoing a hardly less disagreeable ordeal before the Tribunal de la Seine. Retributive justice overtook M. Roustan in the very moment of victory. The month of December 1881 was signalised by both political and military chaos. The absence of M. Roustan at Paris necessarily brought all business to a dead lock. Mustapha returned to Tunis soon after the Resident’s departure, in order to avoid the awkward contingency of his being called as a witness by M. Rochefort, and at once set an intrigue on foot to secure his return to power. Taib Bey and his party were equally active in the prosecution of their designs to supplant both Mustapha and his master. Meanwhile torrential rains set in with unprecedented violence, and greatly helped Ali Ben Hlifa to hold his own against General Logerot. The hospitals at Susa and Jerba were inundated; the ambulance sheds at Manouba were destroyed, and several patients died in consequence; the tents at Carthage shared the same fate; a mud wall fell on the sleeping soldiers near Oued Zerga and killed five of them; and several of the smaller columns were knee-deep in slush, and literally unable to either advance or retreat. Then came the excitement of the Rochefort case, the practical condemnation of M. Roustan, and an official announcement of M. Roustan’s departure, to be contradicted a week later by an equally official announcement of his return.