Life in a Palace; or, Glimpses of Royalty [pp. 449-460]

Life in a Palace; or, Glimpses of Royalty.
the duties of royalty; but the noble
young Prince was not so easily silenced.
He almost tore the priestly garb from
his brother's shoulders, and throwing his
arms about his neck, besought him by
the memory of their common father, by
the yearning tenderness of the beaute ous mother that sorrow had already laid
in a premature tomb, by the love he bore
to himself; and his regard for the happi ness of both, to put on the royal robe he had
brought for the purpose, and repair with
him at once to the monarch's dying bed.
Overcome at last by his brother's
prayers and tears, the Priest yielded as sent to his wishes, and the two reached
the king's bedside just in time to witness
the last struggle. The dying monarch
turned his eyes wistfully on the brothers
as they sat locked in each other's embrace; a faint flush ros e to the cheek as
he evid ent ly reco gnized the ex-priest,
and cast ing up on him a lo ok of rage and
mortification, he essayed to speak. It
seemed the concentrated hatred and
wrath of a life-time, mingled with the
bitter consciousness that he was baffled
at last, as if he longed to break forth in
one last withering invective against the
innocent victim of his fiendish malice —
his life-long hatred and revenge. But it
was too late-a deadly pallor succeeded
the momentary excitement, and the
spirit was gone to its last account.
An hour afterwards, Chau-Faa-Yai
was proclaimed king; and with the quiet
dignity that had characterized his whole
life, entered upon the discharge of his
duties.
His brother was appointed Second
King, and was in everything his principal stay and right-hand counsellor —de
facto, the king, generously taking upon
his younger and more vigorous shoulders
the cares and labours, but leaving to his
brother the ( clat that attaches to the
monarch's life.
Not an unkind word was spoken of
the old king, a magnificent funeral was
ordered, at which the royal brothers appeared as chief mourners; the wives and
children of the late king wrere liberally
provided for; and all were forbidden to
make anyr reference to the offensive acts
of the deceased monarch, or his unjust per secution of the legal heir. Certain ly a
ma r k of generous forbear anc e scarcely to
have been expected even from a Chris tian Prince, i n ret urn for such grievous
wrongs- still less fr om one whose ad vantages h ad been compara t ive ly so
limited; and they speak a character of
no ordin ar y wo rth.
One month after the coronation of the
new king, he again offered the throne to
his brother, w ho again generously decli ned i t, but promi sed t o tak e upon
himself all its arduous duties, and leave
his brother the leisur e for study and re -
flection he so ardently desired. And so
it has been arranged- the two re igning
conjointly- unrivalled in ar dent affec tion for each other-and truly one in
their aim to promote the happines s an d
well-being of their subjects -affording
an anomaly in the re cords of oriental
his tory, of two brothers, each for the
sa k e of the oth er, r eady to r esign a kingdom and a crown, an d reigning at las t in
mutual amity, and thus presentin g to the
world such a picture of self-sacrificing
devotion, as one is sel dom permitted to
witness in this fallen s tate.
These are the present mon ar chs of
Siam, one of the riches t and most de nsely
populated countries in the world and
these kings are men who for enlightened.
policy, s ound discretion, and mild and
equitable use of the despotic power vested
in them, stand first on the list of Eastern
Potentates; and s o wondr ously super ior
are they to the age and nation that has
produced them, that we are a lmost in -
clined to regard t heom as supernatural
per s ona ges, dro ppe d down by some beneficent genius from a higher sphere.
The elder brother, who is nominally the
king, bears the title of SOMD]ET PHRA PAR.IMENDR MAHA MONGKUT P.HRA CnoM KLAU
CiAAU YU-HuA, His Exalted Majesty the
Sacred and Great King, the Lord of Life
and Supreme over All.
Ile is now about fifty-five years of age,
tall and slender ill person, mild in disposition, and wholly unostentatious in manner and habits. He was crowned on the
15th of May, 1851, and was welcomed to
the throne of his ancestors by universal
457
1859.]