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318 ANAM.
At the period of the rebellion, there resided at the
court of Cochin China a French emissary of the name
of Adran, who styled himself the apostolic vicar of
Cochin China. Caung-shung had held him in so high
esteem as to place under his tuition his only son, the
heir to the throne. Adran, on the first burst of the
revolt, saw that the only hope of safety was in flight.
The king was already in the power of the rebels, but
the queen, the young prince, with his wife and infant
son, and one sister, by Adran's assistance, effected
their escape. They took refuge in a forest, where
they lay concealed for several months. When the
enemy retired, they made the best of their way to
Saigon, where the prince was crowned under the name
peror had been uniformly victorious ; but he bore honourable testimony,
at the same time, to the valour of the enemy, and to the
justice and reasonableness of his pretensions to the throne, which
the former possessor had relinquished; and dwelt on the universal
esteem in which he was held by the people ; giving it as his opinion,
that Long-niang should be invited to Pekin, to receive the
investiture of the Tongkin crown, and suggesting that a mandarinate
would amply satisfy the dispossessed Tongkinese prince. The
whole scheme succeeded, and an invitation in due form was sent
down to Long-niang to proceed to Pekin. This wary general, how-
ever, thinking it might be a trick of the viceroy to get possession
of his person, remained in doubt as to what course he ought to pursue.
On consulting one of his confidential generals, it was concluded
between them, that this officer should proceed to the capital
of China as his representative, and personate the new king of
Tongkin and Cochin China. He was received at the court of Pekin
with all due honors, loaded with the usual presents, and confirmedin
his title to the united kingdoms, which were in future to be
considered as tributary to the emperor of China, On the return
of this mock king to Hue, Long-niang was greatly puzzled how to
act. But seeing that the affair could not long remain a secret with
so many living witnesses, he caused his friend and the whole of
his suite to be put to death, as the surest and perhaps the only
means of preventing the trick which he had so successfully played
on the emperor of China, from being discovered. This event happened
in 1779. BARROW, p. 254.