"face the music" from "face the music of war"

[Rick H Kennerly]

|o| boards and literally face the music. Another explanation traces
|o| it back to
|o| militia musters, where every man is expected to appear fully
|o| equipped and
|o| armed, when in rank and file, _facing the music_.
|o|

But none of the modern military usages carry the sense of 1. inevitability
and 2. dread usually associated with modern meanings.

I was thinking that William Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Mariner
(1780) would shed some light on this when he talks about punishment and
courts martial at sea in the British Navy, but nothing so far.

rhk