COCHINCHINA. 259 
rejected with disdain. But being desperately smitten with 
her beauty, he was determined to possess her at any rate, 
and, for this purpose, made an offer to share with her his 
throne, which was also refused. His Siamese Majesty began 
now to be offended in his turn, and to upbraid the emigrant 
Prince as an abandoned outcast, who ought not to hold himself 
and his family in such high estimation. On this subject the 
two sovereigns are said to have quarrelled : but other accounts 
state, what indeed is more probable, that the Siamese 
generals, jealous of the emigrant Prince, had plotted against 
his life. The same jealousy might also have found its way 
into the breast of the King of Siam. Aware of the storm that 
was rising against him, he communicated his apprehensions 
to some of his faithful followers, who advised him immediately 
to quit a Court where the delay of a night might prove fatal 
to him. It was therefore determined that they should force 
their way that very evening, with sword in hand, to the 
nearest port, seize on the shipping which might be there, 
and, being embarked, steer a direct course for their old soli- 
tary island of Pulo Wai. The number of those who had fol- 
lowed his fortunes from Cochinchina, and who had since joined 
him in Siam, amounted to about fifteen hundred persons. Plac- 
ing himself, with his family, at the head of this small force, he 
sallied forth from the capital of Siam, cut his way through all 
that opposed him, embarked his friends in a sufficient num- 
ber of Siamese vessels and Malay proas that were lying in 
the harbour and, putting to sea, arrived safely on Fido JVai, 
which he now took care to fortify in such a manner, with the 
guns and arms found on the ships he had seized, as to be se- 
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