Under these unhappy conditions Phya Tak showed his generous spirit. The needy were destitute no longer. The public treasury was opened for the relief. In return for cash, foreigners supplied them with the products that the soil of the country had refused. The Usurper justified his claims by his benevolence. Abuses were reformed, the safety of property and persons was restored, but the greatest severity was shown to malefactors. Legal enactments at which no one complained were substituted for the arbitrary power that sooner or later is the cause of rebellions. By the assurance of public peace he was able to consolidate his position and no one who shared in the general prosperity could lay claim to the throne. At the end of 1768 a bastard Prince who had been exiled to Ceylon, reassembled his supporters and set up his authority in various parts of the country. Phya Tak led an expedition against him and gained a brilliant victory. The Prince fell into the hands of the conqueror who ordered his execution as, a punishment for having proved the weaker party. In the same year he led an army against Porcelon and Ligor, two towns which had not fallen under the Burmese rule. The governors of these towns, taking advantage of the troubled state of the country, had set themselves up as independent rulers. Thus it was that the Empire, delivered from a foreign yoke was harassed by domestic tyrants who attempted to destroy all that the enemy had spared; in fact the whole kingdom was in a state of turmoil. It is not known whether the expedition was successful. It was reported but not confirmed that the two towns were captured. At the first news of the Siamese revolt the King of Burma sent orders to the governor of Tavoy to overrun the country again, and to press the inhabitants of the town into his army to effect the entire ruin of the country. These people, outwardly subservient, had disguised their hatred against their recent oppressors. The general took only a few Burmese with him as he had put his trust in the Siamese whom he imagined were reliable. He soon found out his mistake, for, on sending them against the town of Beancham which they captured, they closed the gates against him and swore they had taken up arms only to use them against their oppressors. They opened fire upon those who had regarded them as comrades in arms. The general, betrayed by his untrustworthy allies, if it is possible to apply this appellation to the avengers of their country's wrongs, found himself surrounded by enemies. The very countryside turned against him and refused to supply his wants as the Burmese had destroyed all the fruit trees. The beasts of burden, finding no fodder in the plains, had strayed to find pasturage elsewhere.