The Arabs who a month ago surrounded Kairwán are now on the very frontiers of Tripoli. Into that country they will ultimately retreat. Will the Sultan’s troops force back at the point of the bayonet from the Regency of Tripoli their co-religionists, whose only crime has been to defend from invasion the Regency of Tunis? Will the French follow their swiftfooted foes across the boundary-line? Will Mr. Gladstone ask England to believe in sober seriousness that the Tripolitans have afforded good ground for French aggression, after the manner of his assurances about the Khamírs six months ago? Will the so-called European concert allow the absorption of Tripoli as well as Tunis into the colony of Algeria? These important questions will soon have to be answered. The Moslems of Africa await with impatience the verdict of Europe. The fall and occupation of Kairwán have raised a momentous issue. The interest excited by this old world city in the minds of the annalist and the archæologist is undoubtedly great, for within its walls a mine of unexplored wealth awaits them both; but, for the moment, this interest is completely eclipsed by that centred in the very grave political questions which must naturally arise from the presence of a hostile Christian force in what was once “the camp and ramparts of Islam.” CHAPTER XXXVIII. AFTER THE VICTORY. While the French troops were still around the walls of Kairwán, the Ministry of M. Ferry formally placed its resignation in the hands of the President of the Republic. Public opinion in France had of late been so severely exercised on the Tunisian Question, that even the dramatic announcement of the well-timed conquest of Kairwán failed to produce any other effect than ill-concealed hilarity. The unexpected surrender of the Government deprived the Tunisian debate of its natural interest, and its excessive dulness was only relieved by the credulous sentimentality of M. Ferry, the sarcasms of M. Clémenceau, and the unanswerable criticism of M. Le Faure. Six months had brought about a remarkable change in French public opinion, and the very deputies who had cheered M. Ferry’s warlike utterances in May came only to gibe and jeer at his halting apologies in November. It was in vain for M. Ferry to strike his breast and declare that there was “the most perfect accord” between the Bey and the French. This bold assertion was received with undisguised merriment, and even created what is technically known as “an incident.” An eye-witness gives an amusing account of M. Ferry’s perplexities:— M. FERRY said—I do not see why you should laugh at that. If you were patriots you should rejoice at it. DUC DE FELTRE—Certainly, if it were true; but it happens not to be true. M. FERRY—I beg your pardon; it is absolutely true. DUC DE FELTRE—Prove it.