They agreed that if one of the hostages were given up, the Siamese would deliver over a third part of what they were retaining and that the remainder would set out for the mouth of the river whenever the last of the officials should have set sail. Des Farges released one official on the spot, but as he had given the first example of bad faith, the Siamese considered that they were at liberty to break their word also, and, instead of sending down the ships, demanded with threats, that the other two hostages should be restored. M. de Métellopolis wrote a pathetic letter to the commander, pointing out how his line of action would cause the ruin of the French and of the growing Church. The inflexible resolution of Des Farges could not be shaken and after having waited five days for the fulfilment of the Barcalon's promises, he set sail for Malacca en route for Pondicherry taking with him the hostages who were of no possible use to him. CHAPTER VI. THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF DES FARGES. After the departure of the French, the Christians were left without defenders. The Siamese highly enraged at the loss of their hostages, stirred up a sanguinary persecution, and the Bishop of Métellopolis was the first to suffer. He was taken off his ship and dragged in the mire with every possible insult, exposed for a long time to the heat of the sun and to the torments of insects. Some pulled him by the beard, others spat in his face, and those who could not get near enough to strike, threw mud at him. The Barcalon, witness of all these outrages from which he could have protected him, seemed to have no pity. M. du Har, a French officer, shared the same fate. Both were loaded with fetters, put on board a boat and taken across the river. On the bank they found the bodies of their unhappy companions hacked to pieces. The poor bishop, old and infirm and exhausted by what he had undergone could not bear to look at this painful spectacle. He fainted and fell half dying into the mud, from which he was with difficulty extricated. He passed all the day and night in his wet and muddy clothes. A spark of the respect which could not be denied to his virtues, softened the hearts of his persecutors. The Siamese took him to Bangkok and shut him up in a hut next door to the house of a Christian woman by whose kindly ministrations he was restored to consciousness. As soon as he was able to stand the fatigues of the journey he was taken to the capital. He was placed under a guard of cruel and rapacious men, who in order to extort money from him, exceeded even the severe orders of their master. The other Frenchmen were cast into the common jail, a place reeking with disease and filth, where with the idea of death constantly before their minds, they ceased to dread its approach.