Page 272 - A History of Siam
P. 272

A HISTORY OF SUM
          256
          took  King Huang's  death as an   omen,  and did not
          assume the  Royal  tide.
            The  Priest-King  of  Fang,  who had  already  made one
          unsuccessful  attack on  P'itsanulok,  now  seized  the
                      for another           After a      of two
          opportunity             attempt.          siege
          months he was master of P'itsanulok. The unfortunate
          P'ra In was executed and his   corpse exposed  on the
              of the       and the Priest-      of       became
          gate        city,               King     Fang
          ruler of the whole of northern Siam.
            The         robe worn      this abominable man was
                 yellow            by
          the                      about him.   His rule was a
              only religious thing
                  to          and an insult to the        which
          disgrace   humanity                     religion
          he                        to follow. He and his fol-
             sacrilegiously professed
          lowers wallowed in blood and            themselves in
                                          steeped
          drunkenness and vice.               their         was
                                  Fortunately      triumph
         not destined to endure for
                                   very long.
            At the close of the     season of            Taksin
                               rainy          1768 King
         turned his attention to the K'orat district.  The  army
         of Prince             was assisted    a Burmese
                   T'ep P'ip'it             by            force,
         under  Maung Ya,   who had fled from   Ayut'ia  when it
         was             the                 after two stiff en-
              recaptured     previous year ;
         counters the K'orat armies were  overcome, Maung    Ya
         and his Siamese           were           and
                          colleague      captured     executed,
         and K'orat was              The  "      of
                          occupied.         King    P'imai," as
         Prince  T'ep  P'ip'it  was  called, took no  part  in the
                  and when he heard of the defeat of his
         fighting,                                      armies,
         he fled from  P'imai, intending  to seek a  refuge  at  Wieng-
         chan. He was    pursued  and taken.  King Taksin, who
         always  showed  respect  to scions of the former  reigning
                intended to treat him well, but the insolence and
         family,
                   of the Prince towards his       were such as
         arrogance                          captor
         to stifle all       of         and Prince
                     feelings   mercy,              T'ep P'ip'it
         met the usual fate of unsuccessful
                                         pretenders.
           This  Prince, by  virtue of his  birth, was a suitable
   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277