Sehleen is between two and three miles from the coast and is surrounded by olive gardens, fenced in by very thick prickly pear hedges. Before we had finished breakfast the rattle of musketry on the east side of Sehleen told us that the Arabs had begun the attack, so I mounted and followed M. Walewski, Colonel Moulin’s aide-de-camp, towards the place where the firing was going on. We found the outposts keeping up a brisk fire with the Arabs from among a lot of olive-trees. The Arabs were protected by the same sort of cover, but were separated from us by a level piece of ground about 500 yards wide. I stayed at this point for about twenty minutes, when I observed that the guns had got into position on some high land to the right, and that the infantry under their cover were making a turning movement on the left flank of the Arab position. A few shrapnel shells soon sent the Arabs out of their cover, followed by the _tirailleurs_, and this sort of thing went on for more than two hours. The Arabs were present in great numbers, and showed great courage and endurance, sometimes galloping up, dismounting, firing at us, and then retreating like lightning. The French did the skirmishing work excellently, but their fire is not good, for we only found when we came up to their position six dead and one wounded. The Arabs kept retreating farther and farther with wonderful rapidity, and at last they were only just visible from the top of a hill. The guns were then brought up the hill, and at a range of 3000 metres six shells were fired into a crowd of Arabs in the plain beneath, who were endeavouring to gain the shelter of a very large olive wood beyond. This ended everything; the French had two soldiers wounded, but a great many fell out from fatigue and had to be brought in by Arab carts. That night we camped on the sea-shore. The French have all an idea that some Italian officers are with the Arabs, and it is to this they ascribe the Bedouins adopting more effective movements than they did six months ago. Be this as it may, they make no secret of their opinion on this subject. I should have estimated the total Arab loss at 40, but General Bacouch, the Tunisian Governor, says 95 were killed and 150 wounded. The Arabs did not appear to be materially discouraged by their defeat at Sehleen: they attacked Mesaken and some of the principal places near Susa, and it was extremely difficult to know to what extent the villagers themselves sympathised with the insurgents. Meanwhile General Étienne arrived, and an expedition in force started on the 8th October under his personal command, in the direction of Mesaken, of which Lieutenant Kane gives the following account:— _October 9_.