Page 288 - A History of Siam

A HISTORT OF SUM

P'ya Sank'aburi now saw that his cause was hopeless,
and that the to do was to make the best terms
only thing
he could with Chao P'ya Chakri.
Chao P'ya Chakri arrived at Bangkok, with a ferge
force, on April 2Oth. The populace, filled with joy at
the prospect of a just and settled government, flocked to
meet him, and he entered the city in state amidst general
jubilation. All the officials thronged to do him homage,
among them P'ya Sank'aburi and the members of his party.
The of Taksin was embarras-
presence King extremely
sing ; he was incapable of governing, yet he had many
adherents in various of the who be
parts country might
expected to grasp the first opportunity of replacing him
on the throne. Cambodia was still disturbed, and a
Burmese invasion was thought to be imminent. To
ensure the internal of the all the
tranquillity country,
principal officials urged Chao P'ya Chakri to agree to
the death of the ex- King ; he finally accepted their counsel
and King Taksin was executed.
The false P'ya Sank'aburi and his chief adherents- met
with the same fate.
Thus at the of one of the
perished, age forty-eight,
most remarkable men who ever wore the crown of Siam.
In 1767 he was a mere guerilla leader, with only five
hundred followers. When he was fifteen
executed, only
years later, his dominions embraced the whole of the
former Kingdom of Ayut'ia with the exception of Tavoy
and Tenasserim, and, he was suzerain over almost all the
Lao States, including Luang P'rabang. Perhaps no
man but one with the germ of madness in his brain would
have set himself such -a task as that which Taksin
King
undertook and
accomplished.
Chao P'ya Chajcri was at once proclaimed King of
Siam, with the tide of King Rama T'ibodi.