Taboo

I'm planning a robbery.

Ingredients for making gunpowder stolen from under the Company's noses.

Failure to secure His Majesty's gunpowder against the enemy

is a criminal offence.

It might be more effective if we went after Sir Stuart himself.

Those bastards at the Palace

have opened a Royal Commission into the sinking of the Influence.

It is my belief that some very powerful men

were involved in an illicit shipment of slaves

and were complicit in the deaths of those slaves.

The bellmen and the newspapers

tell me there's a new source of prime grade powder in town.

Our guns will fall silent in ten days.

We need the powder in eight.

I need more gunpowder.

You'd risk the life of your son for chlorate?

- You are now one of us. - Why burden him?

Please understand that, from this moment,

I will burn your letters without opening them.

Then I will visit you in your dreams.

James...

I told the Priest how he visits you.

There is a ceremony of exorcism, which can eradicate the Barbason.

My mother's name was Salish.

My father had her sent to Bedlam insane asylum.

Mooning about in the chill. Staring into your head.

You're as bad as your da.

My father cast my mother into madness,

then jumped in straight after.

He's scarcely a man to follow.

He was a good man.

Yes.

Yes, a good man who killed his wife for convenience.

You know nothing.

Always cow-eyed about your sainted mother.

Or maybe it's about time you know about your mother.

I do.

Do you know she took you down to the river to drown you?

Carried you across the foreshore. A tiny baby in her arms.

Innocent and sweet. She waded in.

Held you under, until the bubbles stopped!

She was deranged, James!

That's why your father had her committed to Bedlam.

To protect you.

To save your life, son. Desperate for your death!

It took three men to pull you apart.

She was clawing and spitting,

dragged from the river howling and screaming.

Be very, very careful now!

She wanted you dead, James.

Go away, Winter.

I'm not scared of you.

What are you scared of?

Of who they say you are.

The African devil.

Stop staring. You're scaring me.

Go home to your mother.

Helga loves you. You're safe there. Go to sleep.

All will be well.

Go.

Gentlemen, I want you to pay attention,

because all our lives will depend upon it.

This harmless-looking powder...

is called chlorate.

And on its own, it is harmless.

But when it is added to the sulphur and charcoal in our vats,

it is anything but.

Think of it as like adding a baby to a marriage.

All was ordered and calm and now there is this thing

that demands attention.

Stops you sleeping, belches, farts, screams...

and she's going to make this whole process louder and wilder,

more insane, more impractical...

and the only thing that will stop this entire enterprise

from erupting in a giant explosion the size of Mauritius is this...

and dedication.

Because, from now on,

until the powder is complete, we have to stir.

Continuously!

You.

You.

And Robert.

Stir.

Stir.

Stir.

Frightened rabbit.

Go to hell.

He is African.

They smell fear like dogs.

He's a trumped-up fucking...

antiquarian.

Self-learnt. The worst.

Busiest in the head. Doesn't drink.

They should not be dropping him on us like a black cannonball.

Mr. George Chichester.

Ah.

Gentlemen. How good of you to see me.

You can mystify it all you want, but in the end, that is what it is.

A cat in the middle of the desert, with no nose.

But what-- what an extraordinary achievement, gentlemen.

When you think that the pyramids and the great Valley Of The Kings

and the Sphinx were all manufactured by men

with skin almost as dark as my own.

It almost defies all your-- Our current views of nature.

You are very well travelled, sir.

I just wish I had seen those wonders without the benefit of chains

around my arms and legs.

Which brings me to this tragic business.

I have prevailed upon the Prince Regent to open

a Royal Commission into the sinking of an East India Company ship

called the Cornwallis on July 10th, 1804.

The Cornwallis?

I thought the name of the ship in question was the Influence.

Its real name is the Cornwallis.

But in the port of Cabinda on the West African coast,

its name was temporarily changed.

But wh-wh-why... wh-why was its name changed?

Because, on July the 5th, it was loaded with a cargo of slaves.

Which is strictly not illegal in 1804.

No. No. No.

But the return of the abolitionist Charles Grant...

into the East India Court of Directors almost a year previously...

meant that the East India no longer sanctioned the transportation of slaves.

But these slaves were loaded by East India Company directors anyway.

As part of a thriving illicit network.

It was done for personal profit.

The ship was officially registered as departing Cabinda empty.

That is why it sailed with only a skeleton crew.

And this scarcity of crew is almost certainly the reason why,

within four days,

the ship ran aground.

Help yourself to breakfast.

It's been two days.

Why are you not looking for him?

We had words.

What words?

A family matter.

Well, I-I shall call on Mr. Thoyt.

Perhaps we can glean some knowledge from him.

Oh, if there's any darkness, that articled pimp will know about it.

And then I intend to visit Zilpha Geary.

Why are you not worried?

He won't be dead,

and he won't be happy.

You can depend on that.

Open up!

Open the door, we know you're in there!

- Darlin'? - What do you want?

James Delaney?

He then said the ship was doubly overburdened.

280 slaves in a ship of 150 tonnes.

The blackamoor then claimed that, when the ship ran aground,

the Captain ordered that the cargo hold be nailed shut.

So the slaves would all go down with the ship.

Leaving no evidence of the illicit cargo to incriminate those

who had arranged the shipment.

Then he asked about your brother, Sir.

And his sugar plantation at Jumby Bay, Antigua.

Chichester is their bishop.

The king is safe.

Delaney is a horse

and Prinny is their queen.

I think it's time we started moving some pieces.

Mr. Cholmondeley. Wake up.

Change of guard!

Steady as she goes.

Steady as she goes.

Steady as she goes.

And may God have mercy on our souls.

I was calling on the lady of the house.

If your wife is indisposed, I will leave.

You thought the man of the house would be out, attending to business.

But I have no business.

Is your wife indisposed?

Your visit is regarding Mr. James Delaney, I presume.

Yes, I thought Mrs. Geary might know where he would be.

Why would my wife know where he is?

Well, she is his sister and I already tried his attorney.

You know,

there are so many awful rumours flying around London about him.

I heard one about an actress he keeps locked in his cellar,

- enjoys the beatings... - I don't need to...

An actress...

who enjoys walking with a man with human flesh in his teeth.

You know, you can even buy a song about Delaney now.

In Covent Garden, for a penny.

I-I'll return when you're sober...

It's about a cannibal who plans to eat the Prince Regent.

So it can only be about Delaney.

Forgive me, I was...

just dressing.

He's been gone two days...

And she thought you might know where he is,

because you are his sister.

I'm afraid I have no idea where he is.

I was just telling her about the rhyme they all sing about him now.

It's...

Tis in Pall Mall there lives a pig

That doth this Mall adorn

So fat, so plump, so monstrous big