CHAPTER XI.
AFTER THE REVOLUTION OF 1767.
After the departure of the Burmese army from the kingdom they had just conquered, the Siamese who had been scattered and had been wandering in the forests returned to their capital.
Stirred by thoughts of revenge for what they had suffered, they made ravages every where. Every Burman that they could discover was slain. But the blood of their oppressors was of no avail as a remedy against the famine with which the country was smitten.
The price of rice had risen to such an extent that it had ceased to become a marketable commodity. Wild roots and bamboo shoots were the staple articles of diet, and many were attacked by a peculiar disease. The sufferers lost their memory and power of speech, and became mad with lucid intervals, which augmented the horror of their condition. Necessity that knows no law obliged them to violate all conventions.
They took up arms against their gods whom they accused of having betrayed them. The pagodas were plundered and the images destroyed in order to get at the silver inside them. These acts of sacrilege gave them command of that was useless wealth as they could not purchase anything with it. Five earthenware jars full of gold and silver were taken from one temple alone. The roof of one of the most temples supplied gold, sufficient to fill three boats.
The superstitious Siamese made loud outcries at the scandal of the theft which brought into circulation all the gold and silver that the Burmese their conquerors had taken away. It is not astonishing that so much wealth was forthcoming; since devout persons, in consequence of their belief in transmigration, had buried their treasures in the images of their gods, trusting to discover it in a future state of existence.
The Siamese, although united by desire of revenge, were split into factions for the leadership.
The eyes of the nation were fixed upon Phya Tak, a Siamese officer, born of a Chinese mother. A politician and a warrior, he paved his way to power by affecting its disdain. He was elected to the leadership by the unanimous voice of the whole nation. At first he took the unpretentious title of "Defender of the Nation," and, disguising his ambitions under the cloak of moderation, he wished to appear merely as a citizen in order to be King in reality.
Having attained to the supreme power, it was his policy to contract alliances, as he was sure that the hearts of the nation were apt to pass rapidly from love to hatred. He had learned by experience that the priests, in the abuse of their power over the unlettered mob, were wont to foment sedition and to influence popular feeling. He conceived a violent dislike to them which he took no pains to conceal, and considered that the respect they enjoyed was a slight on his authority. He therefore wished for the extermination of these individuals who, poor by profession, enjoyed the fruits of the labour of others without doing anything in return.