In the meantime the reigning sovereign of Candy had evinced so cruel and tyrannical a disposition, that he became odious to his subjects, who experienced a total insecurity of life and property under his rule, individuals being frequently deprived of both at the caprice of the king. The governor of one of his provinces was summoned to appear at the capital; but this chief, expecting that the sacrifice of his life, and the seizure of his property, were intended, did not obey the mandate. The king assembled an army, overpowered the forces of the disobedient chief, and forced him to fly for protection to the British settlements in the island. In addition to this oppressive tyranny over his own subjects, the King of Candy, elated with his success against the refractory chief, prepared to invade the British territory, against the frontier of which he had long carried on occasional hostilities. He had also inflicted cruelties on some British subjects, who had gone into his dominions on trading speculations. [Sidenote: 1815] These circumstances occasioned Lieut.-General Robert Brownrigg, the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Ceylon, to render assistance to the natives to throw off the yoke, and at the same time preserve the English provinces from aggression, by invading the kingdom of Candy. The British troops advanced into the kingdom of Candy in seven divisions, in the beginning of February 1815, and detachments were formed from the SEVENTY-THIRD, and attached to four or five divisions of the invading army. The soldiers underwent great fatigue in crossing mountains, passing morasses and rivers, and traversing regions inhabited only by the wild beasts of the forest; they succeeded in overcoming all opposition, and arrived at the capital in the middle of February. The king had fled with a small number of his Malabar adherents; but on the 18th of February, he was surrounded, and made prisoner by his own subjects, who showed the utmost detestation of the tyrant.