On the 9th September, 2000 troops arrived at Goletta from Toulon, and again started to effect on the following day the occupation of Susa, where no resistance was now apprehended, as the imprisoned townspeople were perhaps more afraid of the Arabs of the interior than they were of the French. The number of troops already in the country exceeded 20,000 men, yet it became increasingly difficult to maintain communication with the column, now intrenched in a strong position at Zaghouán. On the 10th September, two mounted Arabs were sent thither from Goletta with despatches. One of them returned the next day, and reported that when about half way they had met a small body of French soldiers pursued by a large number of Arabs. The man stated that he saw several Frenchmen killed, that his companion was shot down, and that he only escaped by the fleetness of his horse. The same day the inhabitants of Jedeida and Tabourba abandoned their houses in consequence of the approach of the Arabs in force. On the 12th September, Mustapha Ben Ismail was requested or permitted to resign his Grand Viziership, to the satisfaction of everybody except the Bey, who refused to be comforted. The intrigues which preceded this event, and the causes which directly led to it, are equally a mystery. From the 12th May Mustapha had apparently served France, and, what is more material, M. Roustan and his friends, with his whole heart; he had made a _profession de foi_ to MM. Grévy and Saint-Hilaire face to face, and had been raised to the highest rank in the national order of chivalry; but notwithstanding all this he fell. Some say the fall was the leaving of a sinking ship in disguise. At any rate, it is certain the ex-Prime Minister had not neglected his opportunities; trading on the doting liberality of his master, he had, in twenty years, accumulated a princely fortune, after the manner of the heroes in the Arabian Nights. The spoils of disgraced favourites, the lands of the Hassanite family, and even the Tunisian crown jewels,[6] had found their way into the hands of the captivating but avaricious Mustapha. It was useless for the heirs to the throne to protest, for the splendid estates almost forced on the favourite by his indulgent sovereign were now being exchanged for other property in a fashionable quarter of the French metropolis, and he was preparing to leave an ungrateful country behind him. M. Roustan had gone to Paris for a few days at the end of August, and the order for Mustapha’s removal came from thence. Everything beyond this bare fact was religiously kept secret, but by a strange coincidence, his departure was so timed as to enable him to meet the Pro-Bey at Marseilles. On the 21st September there was much weeping in the palace at Goletta. The Bey hung round Mustapha’s neck, and seemed to care far more for the loss of his favourite than he did for that of his crown. At parting he gave him an almost peerless black diamond, once in