Page 262 - A History of Siam

A HISTORT OF SIAM
246
February 1766 the Burmese were once again before the
walls of
Ayut'ia.
While his country was being devastated both north
and south, and his subjects slaughtered or enslaved,
King Ekat'at, inefficient and debauched as ever, hardly
realised the in which he stood. the actual
danger Only
of the Burmese roused him to some
sight besiegers
sense of his and feverish efforts were made to
peril,
defend the Even at this critical time, however,
capital.
he was inclined to far more on all kinds of
rely super-
stitious charms and magic amulets, and his people,
encouraged by his example, wasted their time in seek-
ing for talismans to render themselves invisible or
invulnerable.
The Burmese armies from the north and the south
did not in more than about
probably number, all, 40,000
men, and Siam ought to have been in a position to cope
with them. was so feeble a resistance made ?
Why, then,
Cowardice, says Turpin ; and this same charge of
cowardice has been levelled the Siamese more
against by
recent writers. But no who knows Siam
person really
believes the Siamese to be cowards. Man for man, they
can well bear as with
comparison, regards courage,^ any
other Eastern race. It was mismanagement, disunion,
and in which rendered Siam so
lethargy high places
a for the Burmese. Had a monarch like
easy prey
King Naresuen been seated on the throne, the Burmese
would never have seen the walls of
Ayut'ia.
It must not be that the Burmese
supposed, however,
had no more to do. There was a
fighting guerilla army
of about 5,000 men, under the leadership of men of the
which resisted the Burmese for months
people, many
in the of the called
neighbourhood village Bangrachan.
Not until seven attacks had been made
separate upon