ourtier who had so
long obstructed all the roads to favor by occupying them himself. It was
absolutely hopeless to think of rescuing that victim from the bey's
clutches in the absence of a signal triumph in the Chamber of Deputies.
All that de Gery could hope to do was to save a few spars from the
wreck, and even that required haste, for he expected from day to day to
be advised of his friend's complete discomfiture.

He took the field, therefore, and went about his operations with an
activity which nothing could abate, neither Oriental cajolery, that
refined honey-sweet courtesy beneath which lurk savage ferocity and
dissolute morals, nor the hypocritically indifferent smiles, nor the
demure airs, the folded arms which invoke divine fatalism when human
falsehood fails of its object. The _sang-froid_ of that cool-headed
little Southerner, in whom all the exuberant qualities of his countrymen
were condensed, stood him in at least as good stead as his perfect
familiarity with the French law, of which the Code of Tunis is simply a
disfigured copy.

By adroit manoeuvring and circumspection, and in spite of the
intrigues of Hemerlingue _fils_, who had great influence at the Bardo,
he succeeded in exempting from confiscation the money loaned by the
Nabob a few months before, and in extorting ten millions out of fifteen
from the rapacious Mohammed. On the morning of the very day when that
sum was to be paid over to him he received a despatch from Paris
announcing that the election was annulled. He hurried at once to the
palace, desirous to reach there in advance of the news; and on his
return, with his ten millions in drafts on Marseille safely bestowed in
his pocket-book, he passed Hemerlingue's carriage on the road, its three
mules tearing along at full speed. The gaunt, owl-like face was radiant.
As de Gery realized that if he remained only a few hours longer at Tunis
his drafts would be in great danger of being confiscated, he engaged his
passage on an Italian packet that was to sail for Genoa the next day and
passed the night on board, and his mind was not at rest until he saw the
white terraces of Tunis at the upper end of its bay, and the cliffs of
Cape Carthage fading from sight behind him. When they entered the harbor
of Genoa, the packet, as it ran alongside the wharf, passed close to a
large yacht flying the Tunisian flag among a number of small flags with
which she was decorated. De Gery was greatly excited, think