The two princes who had escaped, were a continual source of trouble. For a long time they managed to evade their pursuers; and means were taken to prevent them from escaping to some neighbouring country where they might have been able to stir up a rebellion. They remained hidden in a rice field, and were soon deserted by all their servants except one who remained faithful.
This faithful attendant used to go to forage for them. They passed a month in this way exposed to the weather; a prey to their needs and to fear.
At last the servant was recognised in a public place where he was wont to make purchases for his unhappy masters. Several persons identified him as having escaped with them, and that as he had been their companion in flight, he ought to know their hiding place. The secret was wrested from him by torture.
The Princes were captured and confined in the palace dungeons. From that moment knew that death would soon be their portion and that their uncle would never pardon them as they were the sons of his enemy. They were put to the question, and in their answers they showed more firmness than would have been expected from their youth. Sentence had preceded trial and hence they were unanimously condemned to death.
The younger had designed some dresses for a theatrical performance which he had desired to be performed. He asked that, before his death, he might be allowed to see them. This showed that he was childish, or, rather frivolous. The Queen, in vain begged that their request might be granted. The King replied that they had been born with desires that would one day be fatal to the State. These Princes whose fate should have excited compassion were not regretted in the least. It was generally known that their tastes were depraved. It was not by their death that the Crown Prince really became King. He gave his whole heart to his nephew, who had refused the crown that the Siamese had wished to offer him.
The King's predilection excited the jealousy of his eldest son who made a plot to assassinate their cousin, and a day was arranged for the execution of this wicked design.
The Prince had gone to pay his respects to the King and was attended by his cousins who by certain gestures gave him an inkling of the plot against his life. He became frightened and fell at the King's feet who being informed of the plot, made enquiries into the truth of it. The second and third of his sons were convicted of being the authors of the barbarous idea. This father, horror stricken, summoned them fore him and pronounced such dreadful punishments against them that, in order to clear themselves, they protested that their elder brother had led them into crime. The father was deeply grieved on learning that his dearest son had been the most guilty. He summoned him to his presence and made him lie on the ground to receive his punishment. The Priest-prince, witness of the terrible scene, of which he was the innocent author, thought of what the consequence might be, of a punishment inflicted on one who might one day be his master. He prostrated himself on the body of the guilty and cried out. "Father, order that I receive the beating rather than your son". The King was a father and was soon turned from his purpose by his feelings. His wrath merely found vent in threats against his guilty son, who, to become reconciled with the priest-prince, entered the same monastery; but in the shadows of his retreat he enjoyed all the sweets of power. The chief officers of state and the people continued to regard him as the heir-presumptive to the crown. As it happened, he left the priesthood in 1740 and his father declared him his successor. Henceforth he lived in the palace which was appointed for Crown princes, but was quite unworthy of his father's choice. His vices drew upon him the hatred of his father in 1756. He was accused by his bastard brother of having defiled his father's bed, and was summarily sentenced to imprisonment for life. There remained but two legitimate sons to the King whom he had had by the late Queen.
The elder had sunk into the lowest depths of debauchery, which was sufficient reason against his succession to the throne, so much the more so as he was afflicted with a loathsome disease. The younger was preferred to him, he was called Chaoual Padou, that is to say, Lord of the Temple. This prince, brought up from his earliest years among the priests was permeated with the poison of error. A zealous champion of the foolish religion of his country, he was beloved by the nation who saw their superstitions ennobled by so illustrious an example. A stickler for justice, he punished fraud and theft with severity. His good qualities were universally recognised by all from the Crown Prince downwards. His marriage which occurred shortly after his accession, was regarded as a token of the prosperity of the State. His father bent by age died in 1748 aged 80 years. Chaoual Padou was soon recognised by all the officials of the State. Some of his bastard brothers attempted to stir up civil strife, but they did not escape punishment. They were cast into prison where they died of neglect. Peace reigned in the Kingdom after their death, and the people gave him no cause for anxiety.
But his brother whom he rashly had recalled to court favour, was a cause of scandal. He bitterly criticised the government and behaved as a ruler, rather than as a subject and to lighten the disgrace of his degradation, he managed to place himself at the right hand of the King too modest and too weak to punish him.
At last the King being no longer able to tolerate his imperious behaviour, resolved to abdicate a crown the burden of which had become insupportable, and to retire to the seclusion of monastic life. For a second time he donned the robes of a priest and shut himself up with about a thousand idolatrous priests whom he endeavoured to surpass in pseudo-science and in the art of fortelling the future. He sought a secret means by which to render himself invisible and immortal by the use of mercury of which he took so large a dose that all his teeth fell out. Devoting his whole time to futile researches, he became quite indifferent to affairs of State and had no other relaxation than to pore over lying records and to extract therefrom stories fit merely for the credulity of fools.