"The glorious province of Tunis..."
"To become a province of France..."
"To return to the embrace of our Roman kin..."
"We want to be with our kin..."
Xilada saw Bey appear and hurriedly gestured for the petitioning crowd to quiet down, then respectfully approached Haji, saluted, and presented him with a large piece of sheepskin paper.
"What, what is this?" Haji dared not reach out— the scene from last time when the Rebel Army stormed into the Ksar Hellal Palace and nearly captured him had left a huge psychological shadow over him.
"It is a petition, Your Excellency Bey."
Xilada helped him unfold the sheepskin paper, and at the top, written in Arabic, was "Tunis Petition to Join the Kingdom of France."
Below were densely packed handprints of the petitioners, seemingly numbering in the thousands.
"Join France?" Haji asked, trembling, "How to join?"
