y great descent?' cried Yu Chan,
bitterly. 'Even at thy bidding I will not answer a question which casts
so much shame upon me.'

"'Thou can'st not deny this charge!' exclaimed the infuriated monarch.

"'Not so,' replied the chief bonze, 'I will not! If thou carest to
believe the slanderous words which Klan Hua has uttered, and such that
not one in this barge will dare to repeat, so be it!'

"Yu Chan withdrew from his seat at the monarch's side, and taking his
rival's place pointed to the one he had himself vacated.

"'There rest thyself, and be at last content,' he said, scornfully:
'thou false bonze, whisper thence more of thy malicious words into the
ears of the great ruler of Siam!'

"The monarch was disconcerted for a moment, then motioning one of the
other bonzes forward, he exclaimed:--

"'Yu Chan declares that no one in this barge will support his accuser's
words. Thou who wert near, tell me, what am I to believe?'

"'Alas!' answered the bonze, with simulated grief, 'Klan Hua spoke
truly, great monarch; thy trust in Yu Chan has been sorely abused.'

"One after another the bonzes near came before the monarch and gave the
same testimony, for the crafty Klan Hua had so placed the plotters for
the furtherance of their subtle scheme. The ruler gazed angrily at Yu
Chan, then summoning his rival to his side, bade him rest there.

"'Henceforth thou art chief bonze,' he said; then added threateningly to
the fallen one: 'Thou shalt be exiled from this hour, and if the waters
rise to-morrow, as thou hast bidden them, I will have thee hunted down,
hide where thou mayest, and thy head shall fall.'

"The barge reached the shore, and the people drew back amazed to see the
monarch pass on, attended closely by Klan Hua, while he who was as they
thought chief bonze flung off his great robe of purple-embroidered silk,
and idly watched the bonzes disembark, then moved slowly away across the
great plain.

[Illustration: "KLAN HUA WAS FOUND DEAD IN HIS CELL."]

"Two days afterwards Klan Hua was found dead in his cell covered with
the robes of his newly-acquired office, and the ruler of Siam had
dispatched a body of soldiers to hunt down Yu Chan and to take him alive
or dead to Ayuthia. The Meinam had risen still higher the day after the
ceremony, not, as the startled monarch thought, because of the deposed
one's power, but owing to Klan Hua's deception in regard to the real
time when he knew the water would reach its lim