“The king (being ill at the time) said ‘He was glad the old missionaries had returned; he had been very sorry that Maw House and Maw Mattoon were gone.’” A few weeks later, when the king was able, he sent for Dr. House and gave a private audience. “On presenting myself at the palace gate when my name was announced the king said (so I was told by some around him) ‘Dr. H. is not like other foreigners; let him come to me at once.’ I was ushered into the royal palace ere he had left the grand audience hall—his courtiers and pages waiting upon him. I was received with the cordiality and familiarity of an old acquaintance. “He asked me how I came? Did Mrs. H. come with me; what countries I had seen? Mentioning Egypt, he asked me if the canal across the isthmus of Suez would succeed. Saying I had now gone around the world, returning to Siam by crossing the Pacific Ocean to China, he quickly interrupted, ‘Then you lost a day!’ and explained to his attendants how it was.... “It was time for him now to make his evening visit to the vast and lofty structure they were rearing for the funeral solemnities of the late second king. Inviting me to follow, he went down to his sedan and, preceded by soldiers and followed by a crowd of attendants, was borne away. Following, I found him seated in a temporary pavilion erected where he could overlook the work. He soon called me to his side—I, alone, of the hundreds around him, stood upright. He made inquiries concerning Mrs. Caswell, and as he looked again at her picture, turning to the princess royal acting as his sword bearer, said, ‘This was the wife of the teacher that I revered.’ It was gratifying and interesting to see these pleasant memories of persons and events passed away eighteen years before, stealing over him. “Having intimated to the king my wish to take up my note for one thousand dollars in his treasurer’s hands and saying that I should, of course, expect to pay interest on the balance of five hundred dollars—after deducting five hundred dollars paid to Mrs. C. on his majesty’s behalf—in a few days his majesty’s private treasurer paid me a visit, having had the king’s instruction to receive from me simply five hundred dollars, and to surrender to me the note on which was endorsed these words in the king’s own handwriting: “‘S. P. P. M. Mongkut, the King, does not wish to have interest from the loan to his good friend Doctor Samuel R. House—wishing but some useful books, etc., according to the pleasure of said doctor, with stating of price of article. This testimony given 1st January, 1867, the seventeenth year of our reign.’” THE AWAKENING OF 1866–7