The hour of the downfall of Siam was not yet come. The Burmese King was but three days march from the capital when he was attacked by a fatal illness. Thinking less of his sickness than of the obstacle that had checked his victorious progress, he summoned certain Europeans serving in his army to his bedside. He asked them in what time they could gain possession of the city. They replied that it could be done in three days, "Go quickly" answered the King, "and make this rich conquest and if fortune does not bear out your valour come back to me at once." The army started. All the outlying villages were burnt, and even the suburbs of the capital were included in the devastated area. The Christian quarter alone was respected, as the Burmese warned of their valour, had not the courage to attack men so freed from earthly ties that they feared not death. Some of the Christians, who had not followed the example of flight set by the others, shot two of the enemy from the seminary, and this brave defence was the salvation of all The terrified Burmese had no longer any desire to attack them. The Dutch quarter was reduced to ashes and only the warehouse known to contain valuable merchandise was spared. While the town was threatened, the outlying districts were ravaged with fire and sword, and the inhabitants, loaded with fetters, were led into captivity. The children too weak to share their sufferings were the unhappy witnesses of tortures inflicted on their parents. Several children were put to the torture to make them reveal the hiding places of their parents' wealth. On information extorted by violence these pitiless creatures massacred unfortunate individuals without mercy who could only reproach themselves with not being rich enough to satisfy the greed of their executioners. The chief priests who were suspected of having concealed vast wealth, were repeatedly roasted on gridirons until they had confessed where their treasures were hidden. Women were bound above the ankles so tightly that the cords cut into the flesh. Their inexorable tormentors made them answer questions by striking them with the flat of a sword, and even the cries and lamentations of the children whom they compelled to witness their cruelties could awake no compassion in their stony hearts. The men received still harsher treatment. Their ankles were bound in the same way as those of the women, and, to add to their miseries their arms were tied behind their backs so that the elbows touched. It seemed in their wretched plight that their bowels were about to gush out. So severe were the agonies caused in the joints, that the victims swooned in many cases.