The fever departed, and Dr. Trefusis now in health, he walked abroad, dressed in his stolen habiliment, swinging a cane like a beau of the first fashion.
“Yes, my boy,” said he, “it is time I sought out powerful friends to better our poor lot. I am off to break bread with officers and impress upon them my age and sagacity. The company had best be elevated, mighty, and wreathed in the incense of Mars. Anything less than a lieutenant-colonel at the table and I shall not drink a sip of their tea. Never a bite shall I swallow, i’faith. I’ll keep my cake under my tongue until I’m fair out the door, like a witch absconding with the Host, and if they complain, I’ll spout out the mess on their pteryges.”
I inquired if it was his pleasure I should attend him; but he said, “Certainly not. It is time your frail tutor contributed aught to our maintenance. I go out to publish forth word of your excellence, to hunt out engagements for you — suppers and dance lessons, assemblies, what have you. And to ensure that I am known as a resolute Tory.”
I was surprised by this attestation, and I asked, “Sir, are you such?”
“Augustus,” said he, digging between the cobbles with his cane, “there may come a time when those city gates fall, and houses burn, and the infantry flee in their battalions. When such a day arrives, I wish us to be aboard a ship; as otherwise, we may be sure of hanging. I go to procure friends who might, in that terrible hour, offer us passage.”
My looks were perhaps expressive of anxiety; for gazing upon me, Dr. Trefusis said in tones mollifying and gentle, “You must consider it, my boy. This peculiar life we have these many weeks been leading is a dream: thy concerts and thy generous profits. A fancy. Thou art still a slave, and I am yet a poisoner.”
“I wish,” said I, uncertain, “our state here would not change.”
“In a siege,” said Dr. Trefusis, “time’s passage is itself an event, and one of the keenest weapons of assault. You appear discountenanced.”
“If we leave, when shall I be allowed again to play in an orchestra?”
“Perhaps in London.” He placed his hand upon my wrist. “My boy, I would also liefer that we could remain here, but Fate oft . . .” He scratched at the flags with his cane, said, “But no matter. I am off to assure our fortune.” Then he bowed to me, and took his leave.
I did not wish to think on leaving our present circumstances; I would they continued thus forever. But I knew, too, that the enemy waited without the gate, and shots were fired, and we subsisted here only by constant vigilance and show of arms; which bravado might at any moment give way, finally, to blows and the full fury of battle.