The revolt was ready to break out, when the court appealed to popular superstitions to avert the calamity. The priests said that a god known as Pra In had appeared near one of the city gates and had declared that the change of the water was one of his blessings and had become a panacea for the ills they suffered. At this news, the whole populace, passed from despair to hope, every one ran to the river to wash and to anoint themselves with scum that had appeared so deadly a moment before. At last after 15 days the phenomenon passed away. Abundant rains caused the water to overflow the country and to fertilise the ground. The reign of this Prince, like that of his successors, offers nothing worthy of record. His son, who succeeded him, is only known by the defeats he sustained. His army 50,000 strong and his fleet carrying 20,000 fighting men, invaded Cambodia, at that time torn with internal dissensions. This army would have been victorious if its leader had been more skilful. But the King of Siam, enervated by harem life, had entrusted the command to his first minister, a man of peace, and without skill in warfare. The Minister who well knew the direction in which his talents lay, had no wish to take the command, but the King who thought he could make no mistake in the choice of his agents, was certain that one who knew how to govern an Empire would also know how to conquer. The King of Cambodia, too weak to offer resistance to the invading hosts, ordered all his subjects who lived on the frontiers to retire with their belongings to the capital and to burn everything that they could not carry away. The fields were laid waste, fifty leagues of territory were changed into sterile deserts that could hardly sustain animal life. The King declared himself a vassal of the King of Cochin China in order to obtain a force of 15,000 men for land defence and 3000 for service on the galleys for the defence of the coast. The Siamese army, full of confidence in the superiority of numbers, and still more proud to find that no foe dare dispute their passage, rashly penetrated into the country but the further they advanced, the nearer they approached to their fate. Famine, more cruel than the sword ravaged their camp. The devastated fields, gave neither fruits for man nor forage for beast. They were obliged to slaughter their baggage animals in order to provide themselves with meat. The soldiers, unaccustomed to a flesh diet, were attacked by fever and dysentery and more than half of their number died. The leader who had forseen the catastrophe, but had been unable to prevent it, retired with the remainder of his army and was harassed in the rear by his enemies without respite.