red to face him.

"Just when they were most oppressed relief came to the band of a quite
unexpected kind, for the Burmese on the border overran Siam, and the
soldiers were withdrawn to meet the new enemy. So, for a time, the band
was left unmolested; but still none, save their leader, ventured to
leave their wild haunts. Before he had been appointed chief of the
bonzes who brought about his exile, Yu Chan had been the lover of a
maiden of Ayuthia, but the high office which had been bestowed on him
kept them apart. No sooner had the robes which he wore as a bonze been
exchanged for those of a mountaineer than Yu Chan determined to see this
maiden again. On the departure of their enemies he prepared to visit
Ayuthia, although strongly counselled not to do so by his devoted band.
He was, however, obdurate, and set forth on his perilous enterprise
alone.

"Yu Chan crossed the great plain of Siam, and then, resting in a
thatched hut upon the bank of the Meinam, dispatched a Malay, who
chanced to dwell there, with a message to his beloved to visit him, for
he thought it useless to attempt to enter Ayuthia if he wished to live.
At nightfall the Malay returned from the island in the middle of the
bend of the Meinam, whereon ye know the city is built. He thrust a
tablet into Yu Chan's hand, whereon was a desire that the latter would
wait the maiden's coming at a part of the bank where often the boat of
the lovers had touched at before. Soon the exile beheld the slight craft
making for the shore, manned by six rowers muffled in their cloaks, for
the night was cold. Happy indeed would it have been for the lovers if
the maiden had scanned closely the features of those who ferried her
across the river, for the treacherous Malay had recognised Yu Chan, and
six of the monarch's soldiers were the supposed boatmen, hurriedly
gathered to take the exile or to slay him.

"The maiden stepped from the boat, and, with a glad cry, flung her arms
about Yu Chan, who had passed down the narrow path to meet her. Together
they climbed up the steep way that led to the plain above the high bank,
followed by the muffled soldiers, who lurked cautiously in the shadows
of the limestone, through which wound the toilsome path. Once, as they
passed along, a slight sound behind them arrested the footsteps of the
lovers, and Yu Chan turned and glanced back searchingly, then on they
went again. For an hour or more they wandered together over the plain,
then