From all accounts, Mr. Boehm, in whose charge was the fateful roll, was too occupied in securing his own safety to trouble about the fate of the address. It appears that the scattered procession went on to St. James’s without the presenter of the document which had entailed so many embarrassments. According to the _Political Register_, a messenger was despatched back to the coffee-house for the address; where “Mr. Boehm, having missed it, remained in great suspense.” After many inquiries and great alarm, the roll was found under the seat of the coach, where, by a miracle, it had escaped the search of the mob; the address was immediately forwarded to St. James’s, where it was expectantly awaited. The history of this incident is taken up by the _Political Register_ for 1769:-- “The merchants and traders who retired with the address mentioned in the account of the proceedings at the ‘King’s Arms,’ having by means of repeated advertisements and private letters obtained a considerable number of persons to sign the said address at the Merchant Seamen’s Office over the Royal Exchange; ... Wednesday, the 22nd March, at two in the afternoon, being appointed, on that day at noon, a great number of the merchants, etc., of this city, set out from the Royal Exchange in their carriages, in order to present an address to His Majesty, attended by the City Marshal and constables; before they got to Cheapside, the mob showed them many marks of their resentment, by hissing, groaning, throwing dirt, etc., but when they arrived at Fleet Street, the multitude grew quite outrageous, broke the windows of the coaches, threw stones and glass bottles, and dispatched a party to shut up the gates at Temple Bar, on which the cavalcade was obliged to stop. Mr. Cook, the City Marshal, going to open the gates with his attendants, was very severely treated; his clothes were torn off his back and his head cut in two places. The populace then attacked the gentlemen in their carriages; Mr. Boehm (who carried the roll) and several of his friends being covered with dirt, were obliged to take refuge in Nando’s Coffee-house. Some of the coaches then drove up Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane, and Shoe Lane; but the greater part of the gentlemen, finding it impossible to proceed, returned home. The Addressers, however, did at length reach St. James’s, but the mob threw dirt at the gentlemen as they got out of their carriages at St. James’s Gate.” The few that reached the palace were so covered with dirt as to be unpresentable, and those of the courtiers who came within reach of the mob were also bespattered. The document which was the main cause of this disturbance was within an ace of never reaching its destination.