Having arranged the plan of the Kairwán crusade, General Saussier returned to Algeria on the 19th August, leaving Arab anarchy rampant and unchecked, until cooler weather should allow the realisation of his projects. Urgent letters from the Governor of Kairwán, however, now rendered some kind of immediate movement necessary. About 2000 Tunisian irregulars were collected; and on the 20th August these started in the direction of Testour, commanded by Ali Bey and the Generals Ahmed Zerouck and Ali Ben Tourkia. Two French columns of 1500 each started about the same time for Hammamet and Zaghouán. Little progress could be made by the Tunisian force, as all the baggage camels had been stolen in the great _razzia_ of the Zlass tribe in July. The town of Susa was now practically in a state of siege. A Maltese, who went to his garden outside the walls, was at once shot dead, and as the villagers and tribesmen had agreed to join in an attack on the town, the gates could only be opened at intervals. The Arabs speedily contrived to cut off communication between the Hammamet and Zaghouán columns and Tunis; several convoys of carts were intercepted and robbed, and the drivers escaped with the loss of their property and horses. A Maltese courier was killed close to Zaghouán, and a native guard who accompanied him was also shot. The relatives of the latter were carrying away the body, when some more carts, now escorted by French troops, appeared. Unluckily enough the mourners were mistaken for marauders, and shot by the soldiers before any explanation could be given. The Hammamet column under Colonel Corréard now sustained a severe check, and was finally obliged to fall back towards Hamman-el-Lif. This was, perhaps, the only success gained by the Arabs in a fair fight during the whole campaign, and they certainly made the most of it. Ali Bey seemed to be unable to quit the vicinity of the capital, and to add to the perplexities occasioned by the equivocal attitude of his “irregulars,” he received a letter from Ali Ben Hlifa, saying that he would be attacked by the Arabs as an “infidel and a Frenchman” at the first opportunity. CHAPTER XXX. THE COMING CAMPAIGN.