Unbridled in his lusts, and shameless in his actions he had no other rule of conduct than his own sweet will; and in the intoxication of his brutal passions, had the folly to marry his father's sister openly. The nobility too feeble and too cowardly to attempt to reform the abuses, preferred to follow the example of the tyrant rather than to fall as victims. The officials, brutalised by the debauchery into which they had sunk to please their master, knew neither how to foresee nor to fear coming troubles. Their security was founded on the report that the Burmese King, a warlike and restless Prince, had been dethroned on his return to Ava, and that his elder brother was content to govern his own people and had no ambition for foreign aggression. A peaceful règime seemed necessary to him to ensure his rule over a turbulent race, and his efforts were directed towards the maintenance of peace and to the civilization of his people. He was highly indignant with those who had advised his father to attempt the invasion of Siam, that had cost the nation so many valuable lives, more precious than all the spoil they had carried off. Such peaceable tendencies promised a spell of unbroken peace to the neighbouring Kingdoms, but the appointed hour struck for the punishment of a people sunk in slumber and debauchery. The peace-loving King died suddenly, and his successor a man of great ambition and, feeling too cramped in his own territories, was the rod by which God struck the Siamese. CHAPTER IX. THE REVOLUTION OF 1767. The new Burmese monarch desired nothing better than warfare and conquests. Too proud to conceal his feelings, he boasted that he had promised his dying father to crush the the cowardly nation that merely waited for a conqueror to reduce it to bondage. Several high officials supported his ambitious projects. His first victories were gained over his intractable and rebellious subjects. As soon as they had been subjugated, he sent one of his generals in command of five thousand picked troops to effect the capture of Tavoy, whose governor, although a Burman, had made himself independent in 1761. This rebel, not feeling that he alone would be able to maintain his position with his own troops, sought an alliance with the English who supplied him with all manner of arms and ammunition. At same time a vessel from the Coromandel coast, and laden with rich presents for Pegu, was obliged to drop anchor at Tavoy. The idea of a rich booty won over the governor who resolved to appropriate so valuable a cargo in order to purchase an alliance with Siam, who, alone could have supported him in his encroachments.