The police who have charge of the royal harem are women, and night and day close watch is kept that no one goes out or comes in without their permission. Any one not known to the guards is searched at the door of entrance. Every afternoon at four o’clock the gates of the palace are locked. On my way to the market near I could often see the king as he walked in his royal palace, which is higher than other buildings. In the courtyard below the native children played noisily, which the king did not seem to mind. This is very different from the old king, before whom all must bow or fall on their faces. CHAPTER XX. _CORONATION OF HIS MAJESTY THE SUPREME KING OF SIAM._ The Siamese monarchy is not hereditary――that is, not in the sense that that term is understood in Europe. There is what is called the _Senabodee_, or royal counselors, consisting of the chief ministers of state, who during the life of the king are merely silent counselors, but upon his death their power becomes manifest, and upon them devolves the responsibility of selecting a successor and governing the kingdom until such successor is chosen. The successor must be a prince of the realm, but not necessarily the eldest son of the late king; indeed, not necessarily a son of his at all. The death of the late king occurred about nine o’clock P. M. The prime minister was immediately summoned to the palace, and convened the _Senabodee_, and before midnight the succession was determined and everything going on smoothly. They chose in this instance the eldest son of the late king, Somdetch Chowfa Chulalangkorn, a boy about sixteen years old. His coronation took place on Wednesday, November 11, 1868, being the day decided upon by the Brahman astrologers as the one most propitious. At this coronation there was a slight innovation upon the usual Siamese custom. No European had ever before witnessed the coronation ceremonies of any king of Siam. The late king, after his coronation, wrote a private note to some of his European friends stating that he would have been glad to have had them present, but “state reasons forbade the presence of foreigners.” [Illustration: SOMDETCH CHOWFA CHULALANGKORN.]