The Siamese army commanded by the son of the King, (who was known as the Black Prince to distinguish him from his brother) took the field and gained a brilliant victory, Prunginiko annoyed, rather than dispirited, raised an army of 1,700,000 men under the leadership of his eldest son, who self confident in numerical superiority assumed the title of King of Siam. The reports of his march caused general consternation, but the Black Prince, calm amid the stress, did not lose hope of dispersing them. His soldiers fired by his example, were eager for the fray. A battle was fought on which the fate of the Empire hung in the balance. With equal ferocity, the two leaders mounted on elephants sought each other out and careless of danger, engaged in single combat, appearing to fear death less than the shame of being vanquished by a hated rival. At last the Burmese Prince fell in the dust and died with every symptom of rage and despair. His soldiers, panic stricken, turned and fled and the Siamese harassed them in the rear for a month as they pursued them like wild beasts, and, slaughtered them without mercy. After a glorious reign, the Black Prince who succeeded his father left the Kingdom in a settled condition to his brother the White Prince who had no skill in the art of government. This new King, a prey to greed and suspicion, allowed himself to be ruled by one of the chief nobles at the Court who in order to render the King more odious, encouraged his vices and follies. This faithless favourite with a large retinue of slaves including 280 Japanese, plotted to gain possession of the throne. The King enfeebled by debauchery was in danger of death, but his son, the heir-apparent, was an obstacle to the ambitious ideas of the favourite. The King misled by the representations of his favourite pronounced sentence of death on his innocent son, but the successor to the throne avenged the crime by the death of the favourite to whom it was due. The blood of the guilty was the cause of new troubles. The slaves of the ambitious favourite and especially his Japanese retainers took upon themselves to avenge the death of their master. These bandits, nurtured on crime and rebellion, obliged the King to deliver over to them four of the chief nobles whom they massacred without pity. Their fury extended even to the King who was obliged to sign in his own blood the conditions which they had the audacity to impose. They furthermore demanded that the chief priests should be given up to them as hostages for the promises they had extorted.