Time was ticking by: if he failed to come up with some public gesture of repudiation of the article he’d be damned for a Popham admirer. But by evening he’d reached the conclusion that there was no chance of a resolution. He retired to bed with the forlorn hope that it would blow over in time and that he’d be well advised to keep away from everybody until it did. In the morning four letters arrived. The first he opened was from a complete stranger. … why should we not believe that yourself and the notorious Captain Popham made assault on the Spanish colonies for reasons of personal plunder? At the sacrifice of lives and honour … by turning on the Admiralty who employ you, in the basest way, in that they cannot reply, you have betrayed your comrades and your country … the name of Kydd will for ever be associated with … The others would no doubt be in the same vein. He hadn’t the stomach to read them. It was now becoming clear that, far from dying down, the affair was heating up.
