The status of the mission was deemed so critical that Dr. House was authorised to report the situation to the mission office in New York and to ask permission for the missionaries to quit Siam as the last resort and to attach themselves to missions in other lands. The reply, received nine months later, gave full authority to the missionaries in the matter, and provisionally assigned Dr. House as assistant to Dr. Happer in China. This assignment had been suggested by Dr. House in his letter to the Board because Dr. Happer, knowing of the crisis in Siam, had written him to come to China, adding that he “always thought Siam an unpromising field; and that after the Board gets out of it they might as well keep clear of it.” While waiting for the desired authority to quit the field the missionaries kept an eye open for a favourable chance to get away in safety, deeming themselves warranted in escaping with their lives in any vessel that could be found to take them away. Thus did the Mission come very close to an untimely end. DEATH OF THE OLD KING The serious foreboding of the natives and foreigners alike was greatly intensified by the rumour that the king had shut himself up in his palace and would have no communication with his nobles. Daily the court assembled according to custom but the king took no counsel with them concerning public affairs. So few were permitted to enter the royal presence that it was difficult to ascertain whether he was sick or only in a pet as on a previous occasion. It was, however, a case of serious illness from a chronic disease which had rapidly become critical. About the middle of February of that notable year, 1851, the king sent a document to the assembled nobles, briefly stating that he despaired of recovery, and left to the council of princes and three chief ministers the selection of a successor; and at the same time turned over the reins of government to these three ministers. Although the king at this time refrained from nominating a successor, he had some months previously expressed a preference for a favourite son, but the nobles would not confirm his wish. Besides this son there were two other aggressive aspirants for the throne; all three candidates being conservatives. While both Chao Fah Yai and Chao Fah Noi had legitimate claims to the throne there was no apparent prospect that either would be chosen, for the other three claimants were strongly united in their opposition especially to the former because of his known friendliness towards the English.