And, despite his wariness of pick-pockets (and eyes darting for signs of "Three-Handed Jenny"), Lewrie was thronged by gentlemen and ladies wishing to take hands with him, by people fluttering portrait prints of the artist de Koster's charcoal life sketch (now available from Mr. Brydon's shop in Charing Cross) for him to sign with pencil in the margins.

Ye'd think I'm Nelson, fresh from the Battle of the Nile, not a slave-crimper! Lewrie ruefully told himself, and wondering if he'd attract the same sort of acclaim should he be found guilty and carted off to the gallows, a few days hence. And would he have to put on the same confident and affable show, to "Go Game" as a convicted highwayman?

"God bless you, sir! Good on yer! Might you do me the honour of inscribing…? Best of luck t'ye this day, sir! Me son served wi' ye in th' old Jester sloop, Cap 'm, un'… The Devil take those horrid Beaumans, and God uphold the right, I say, Captain Lewrie!" came from dozens as he slowly made his way up the broad steps to the welcoming doors, now standing wide open despite the cold, and visibly blasting waves of warmth from the interior. Calls for "Abolition of slavery, throughout the British Empire, now!" were followed by " 'Ere, oo's 'at git?" with the faint cry of "Thief, thief!" from the edge of the crowd, out by piles of shovelled-away snow, now gone grey from coal smoke grit and frozen half to ice. Thankfully, it was not directed at Lewrie, but at some clumsy pick-pocket, who was sprinting away as fast as his legs could carry him, with or without the object of his craft, pursued by a clutch of men.

Oh, there were some stout and prosperous-looking men, heavily and expensively overcoated against the chill, who stood far back at the edges of the crowd, round to either side of the top of the steps, who glowered at him; men engaged in the sugar trade, which utterly depended on slave labour for their crops… men in the tobacco, rice, rum, and cotton imports, and men in the West Indies and American shipping businesses, which maintained the infamous Triangle Trade of British gewgaws to Africa, slaves in exchange to the Americas and West Indies, then raw goods back to Great Britain.