Here, in December, 1872, twenty-one natives of the Belezma were tried at a court of assizes for the massacre, last April, of twelve French colonists.  The affair was a sequel of the French-Prussian war.  The natives, for a long time past on good terms with strangers, became insolent, boasting that France was ruined, and that all the French would soon disappear from Algeria.  Some of the tribes, however, remained, if not friendly, at least less hostile.  The revolt had become almost general, and on the 21st of April the sheikh Brahim of the Halymias informed the little colony near Batna that they were no longer safe in the forest, and offered to escort them into Batna.  These colonists were the workmen at the saw-mills of a M. Prudhomme, about ten miles out of the town.  The Europeans, consisting of thirteen men, one woman named Dorliat and her four children, set out the next morning, accompanied by Brahim and about forty of his men.  On arriving in a ravine they were suddenly attacked by a large body of the rebels.  Six of the party, who were in the rear, succeeded in escaping, but twelve of the men were massacred.  Madame Dorliat, it is said, owed her life to a native named Abdallah at the saw-mills, who, on seeing her in tears before starting, said to her:  “Woman, you have nothing to fear:  no harm will be done to you or to your children.  As for the men, I will not answer for them.”  As she continued to weep, he added:  “Listen!  When you see the guns pointed at your breast, say this prayer:  ‘Allah!  Allah!  Mohammed racoul Allah!’ and you will be saved.”  He also taught the same prayer to her children.  In the midst of the slaughter several Arabs had leveled their firearms at her to shoot her, when she remembered Abdallah’s lesson, and throwing herself on her knees to them repeated the invocation.  The murderers stopped, made her say it over again, and asked, “Do you mean it?” On her replying in the affirmative they spared her, but stripped her entirely naked, and took from her three of her children:  she only recovered them thirty-two days later, and one of them died from a sabre-cut in the head, received during the fight.  The woman’s husband was among the killed, and so was the proprietor of the mill, M. Prudhomme.  Of the twenty accused brought to trial at Constantina, twelve were condemned to death and three to hard labor; the others, among whom was the sheikh Brahim, being acquitted.

[Illustration:  MOUNTAIN ARABS.]

Severe justice is the only condition on which French supremacy can be maintained in the country, and probably for the general Arab populace the rule of the Gauls is a judicious one.  But it is to be questioned whether the rule of talion is the right one for the Kabyles.  In 1871, at the height of the French troubles with the Commune, formidable revolts were going on among the descendants of those untamable wretches whom Saint Arnaud smoked out in a cave.  In July the garrison at Setif heard the plaint of