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Behest   /bɪhˈɛst/   Listen
Behest

noun
1.
An authoritative command or request.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Behest" Quotes from Famous Books



... fate, however little deserving they may have been of our sympathy, so I invited them to accompany us back to the ship. They came protesting they would henceforth be our slaves, ready, in all things, to obey our slightest behest. But I had little faith in their promises when their ...
— Adventures in Southern Seas - A Tale of the Sixteenth Century • George Forbes

... One behest after another was issued to the Lusitanians, each successive demand more intolerable than its predecessors; and at length they were required even to surrender their arms. Then Viriathus recollected ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... in reality, directed by the railroad and other corporations. United States judges, at the behest of the railroad companies (which had caused them to be appointed to the Bench), issued extraordinary, unprecedented injunctions against the strikers. These injunctions even prevented the strikers from persuading fellow employees to quit work. So utterly lacking any basis in law had these injunctions ...
— History of the Great American Fortunes, Vol. I - Conditions in Settlement and Colonial Times • Myers Gustavus

... supposed that the Uitlanders, after an experience extending over a decade and a half of all sorts of promises, not one of which had been kept in the spirit in which it was intended to be construed, would consent to abandon their scheme at the behest of Dr. Mansvelt and the misguided few who judged his proposals by appearances. President Kruger speaking at Rustenburg as lately as March last laid particular emphasis upon the stipulation in the Law that in the fourth year Dutch ...
— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick

... he, 'the judgment which has been pronounced. But I like it not—I agree not to it. Shall the minister of Christ, the ambassador of God, a messenger from Heaven to earth, hold his peace at the behest of a man, though he be an emperor, or of ten thousand men, were all emperors? Not though every Christian in Rome subscribed to this judgment, not though every Christian in the world assented to it, would I. Is Christ ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... cooking ascended from the basement kitchen, and when Jacob Asimof had entered the front door at the behest of a coloured man with white gloves he sniffed the fragrant atmosphere of the lobby like a coon dog at the ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass

... self-conscious friends are not the fatalest kind of persons to be met with in our day. All greatness is unconscious or it is little and naught. And yet a great man without such fire in him, burning dim or developed as a divine behest in his heart of hearts, never resting till it be fulfilled, were a solecism in nature. A great man is ever, as the transcendentalists speak, possessed with an idea. Napoleon, himself not the superfinest of great men, ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... upstairs between a blanket and a mattress. I know, Mrs. Wilmerton," he almost shouted, turning on her with an accusing forefinger, "that they were stolen from a house in this town by some one representing the Ladies' Temperance League. I know that burglary was committed by, or at the behest of, some one representing the Ladies' Temperance League! I know that, if this matter is carried to the end, a respectable old lady—a leader in the Ladies' Temperance League—will go behind the bars, sentenced as a burglar! That's what ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler

... milkie stream, Berrie or Grape: to whom thus Adam call'd. Haste hither Eve, and worth thy sight behold Eastward among those Trees, what glorious shape Comes this way moving; seems another Morn 310 Ris'n on mid-noon; som great behest from Heav'n To us perhaps he brings, and will voutsafe This day to be our Guest. But goe with speed, And what thy stores contain, bring forth and poure Abundance, fit to honour and receive Our Heav'nly stranger; ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton

... satire, which was based in part upon veritable history and contained transparent allusions to well-known personages, was more or less toned down in deference to the wishes of Dalberg. Minor changes were also made at the behest of the actors. But while it was not played and not printed until the spring of 1784, it belongs in its substance and its spirit, not to the Mannheim period of Schiller's life, but to the period which he had spent in hiding. It is a freeman's comment upon high life as he had known it. Scrupulously ...
— The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller • Calvin Thomas

... the Great; and the third, Julius Caesar, Emperor of Rome, of whom the histories be well known and had. And as for the three Jews, which also were before the Incarnation of our Lord of whom the first was Duke Joshua, which brought the children of Israel into the land of behest; the second, David, King of Jerusalem; and the third Judas Maccabaeus; of these three the Bible rehearseth all their noble histories and acts. And since the said Incarnation have been three noble Christian men, installed and admitted through the universal world into the number of the ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot

... trees the fair leaves fell in abundance fluttering down to the ground, and the fruit fell to the ground because Boreas blew very fiercely at the behest of Zeus; the deep seethed and all things trembled at his blast: the strength of mankind consumed away and the fruit failed in the season of spring, at that time when the Hairless One [1746] in a secret place in the mountains gets three young every ...
— Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica • Homer and Hesiod

... son's behest, the old woman hobbled off to the palace, and, without being hindered, reached the courtyard, and began to mount the flight of steps leading to the royal presence chamber. At the head of the landing rows of courtiers were collected in magnificent ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang

... broke the seals upon his will, They found each codicil and long bequest Was held in trust until The heirs should carry out his last request— To burn his body (naming witnesses); And they, all eagerness to share, Prepared to carry out this strange behest. ...
— Carolina Chansons - Legends of the Low Country • DuBose Heyward and Hervey Allen

... doth grieve me To give thee cause for grief, my honored friend. Command me, sir! what wouldst thou have me do? At thy behest I will shake off that nature Which from my forefathers I did inherit, Which with my mother's milk I did imbibe, And be no more Politian, but some other. Command ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... unless it be to the electric fluid, are we to attribute the magic by which the Will enthrones itself so imperiously in the eye to demolish obstacles at the behest of genius, thunders in the voice, or filters, in spite of dissimulation, through the human frame? The current of that sovereign fluid, which, in obedience to the high pressure of thought or of feeling, ...
— Louis Lambert • Honore de Balzac

... Amzi. Mrs. Waterman's husband, who kept an eye on the county records, had, at his wife's behest, assured himself frequently that Kirkwood's block in Main Street was unencumbered. Kirkwood's former home, the decaying monument to his domestic tragedy, and the only other thing he owned, was free also. In this process of "smoking ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... Newton's visit. When this gentleman presented himself, Katherine observed that her uncle was in a state of tremulous impatience, and the moment she saw the stranger she felt that some unlucky accident had prevented Newton from obeying his client's behest. ...
— A Crooked Path - A Novel • Mrs. Alexander

... 1909, the Spanish government—at the behest of the Catholic Church—arrested Francisco Ferrer. On the thirteenth of October, after a mock trial, he was placed in the ditch at Montjuich prison, against the hideous wall of many sighs, and shot dead. Instantly Ferrer, the obscure teacher, became a universal figure, ...
— Anarchism and Other Essays • Emma Goldman

... prayer-book, bidding him perfect himself in the Catechism in view of future Confirmation. But, as emulation of his fellows and not religious zeal was the mainspring of Paul's enthusiasm, the pious behest was disregarded. Paul dived into the volume occasionally, however, ...
— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke

... guest would tell us The things that he liked best, And order and compel us To follow his behest. ...
— Songs Of The Road • Arthur Conan Doyle

... a jovial old man and the largest tenant on the estate, rose to do the Captain's behest, and sent ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 1, January, 1891 • Various

... Walter then. "Take of our Franks a thousand men; Sweep the heights and the passes clear, That the Emperor's host may have nought to fear." "I go," said Walter, "at your behest," And a thousand Franks around him pressed. They ranged the heights and passes through, Nor for evil tidings backward drew, Until seven hundred swords outflew. The Lord of Belferna's land, that day, King Almaris met him in ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various

... cannot live among us, I give thee leave to restore him to his place, after due entertainment," presently adding, "Bring him the guest-meal." So they brought him fish of various kinds and colours and he ate, in obedience to the royal behest; after which the King said to him, "Ask a boon of me." Quoth he, "I ask of thee that thou give me jewels;" and the King said, "Carry him to the jewel-house and let him choose that whereof he hath need." So his friend carried him to the jewel-house and he ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... the impatience of the people. A lengthened period of quiet and therefore good government with a minimum of new laws would be the greatest benefit the country could receive. When I recommended you to comply with the Queen's behest I did so because I thought that you might inaugurate such a period more certainly than any other one man." This old Duke was quite content with a state of things such as he described. He had been ...
— The Prime Minister • Anthony Trollope

... already familiar with Mr. Aylmore's photograph, but he never remembered seeing him in real life; the Member for Brookminster was one of that rapidly diminishing body of legislators whose members are disposed to work quietly and unobtrusively, doing yeoman service on committees, obeying every behest of the party whips, without forcing themselves into the limelight or seizing every opportunity to air their opinions. Now that Spargo met him in the flesh he proved to be pretty much what the journalist had expected—a rather cold-mannered, self-contained man, who looked ...
— The Middle Temple Murder • J.S. Fletcher

... unexpectedly at the behest of her dream, Frank heard again the music of her voice, felt the joy of her presence and the benison of her smile. There was, however, a subtle difference in her bearing. Her words were not less kind, but they seemed to come from a remoter source. She was kind, as the sun is warm or the rain refreshing; ...
— The House Behind the Cedars • Charles W. Chesnutt

... law of the holding-company device is no new suggestion. It was strongly urged years ago by the late Edward B. Whitney. It was the keystone of the famous "Seven Sisters" statutes,[1] enacted with loud acclaim in New Jersey at the behest of Governor Woodrow Wilson (but subsequently repealed and thrown into the discard). Such a measure would be more effective and far-reaching than the public supposes. Nearly all the so-called trusts have been organized and are being held together in whole or in part, by the holding-company ...
— Our Changing Constitution • Charles Pierson

... subjects, into the follies and vices of the past, and they largely succeeded. But, after all, the age was against them; and people who have once desired and done great things are slow to forget them, though the censor may forbid them to be named, and the prison and the scaffold may enforce his behest. ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... boy reaches the age at which he feels that he is a man, he ceases to be under paternal restraint, which even up to that age has been more or less lax. At this period he assumes as much independence as his father, but will obey any behest without understanding the propriety or the necessity of complying. As a general rule, filial relations are most cordial, and great respect is entertained for both parents, but it may be said that male children respect ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... hardly ever effective. It is needless to state that many modern statutes—like prohibition laws, for instance—are passed for that very reason. Yet whatever the fact may have been in the past, there is no doubt that for the future, legislation by the people, constructive law-making at the popular behest, is the great new fact of Anglo-American civilization. There has just been brought out an immense index, under the auspices of the British Government, called "The Legislation of the Empire, being a Survey of the Legislative Enactments of the ...
— Popular Law-making • Frederic Jesup Stimson

... with this at once supplicating and imperious behest, and related in a despairing voice the events which had wrought his woe. He did not omit a single particular, but tried rather to exaggerate than palliate the horrors of his situation. Perhaps he found a strange satisfaction in proving to himself that there was ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... other, a form hovering dark and mother-like, her awful face black with the mists of centuries, had aforetime quailed at that white master's command, had bent in love over the cradles of his sons and daughters, and closed in death the sunken eyes of his wife,—aye, too, at his behest had laid herself low to his lust, and borne a tawny man-child to the world, only to see her dark boy's limbs scattered to the winds by midnight marauders riding after "damned Niggers." These were ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois

... sometimes treated as an impertinence to revive the personages of one story in another, even though it is after the example of Shakespeare, who revived Falstaff, after his death, at the behest of Queen Elizabeth. This precedent is, however, a true impertinence in calling on the very great to justify the ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge

... accompanied by a gentleman of venerable and patriarchal appearance; apparently an indulgent old uncle, a slave to the caprices of his pretty niece, who had renounced his comfortable after-dinner nap by the fire, in order to obey her behest and escort her to the theatre. She, slender and erect as Diana, was very richly and elegantly dressed, in that peculiar and exquisite shade of delicate sea green which can be worn only by the purest blondes, and which seemed to enhance the dazzling whiteness of her uncovered shoulders, ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... inspiration of the huge crowds spurred them on to do their prettiest. Bert attracted especial attention as he kicked goals in practice. His fame had preceded him, and the college men in the stands were kept busy at the behest of a sister—or somebody else's sister—in "pointing out Wilson." Other heroes of the gridiron also came in for their meed of admiration, and by the time the game was started expectation was wound up to the highest pitch. ...
— Bert Wilson on the Gridiron • J. W. Duffield

... Fair Pastorella in the bandit's den, Are things to brood on with more ardency Than the death-day of empires. Fearfully Must such conviction come upon his head, Who, thus far, discontent, has dared to tread, Without one muse's smile, or kind behest, The path of love and poesy. But rest, In chaffing restlessness, is yet more drear Than to be crush'd, in striving to uprear 40 Love's standard on the battlements of song. So once more days and nights aid ...
— Endymion - A Poetic Romance • John Keats

... The thought, however, of her anticipated visit to the castle speedily dispelled her anxiety, and she began to make preparations for setting out, attiring herself with unusual care. Bouchier had not experienced much difficulty in persuading her to obey the king's behest, and by his artful representations he had likewise induced her grandfather to give his consent to the visit—the old forester only stipulating that she should be escorted there and back by a falconer, named Nicholas Clamp, in whom ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... the waiter, the maiden carried it to the parlour, which she entered after knocking, in response to Washington's behest. The general looked up from the paper he was conning and instantly smiled a recognition to ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... for I must forth upon my way to render service to those whose knight I am sworn." "Nay, now, King Arthur," answered the sorceress mockingly, "ye may not think to deceive me; for well I know you, and that all Britain bows to your behest." "The more reason then that I should ride forth to right wrong and succour them that, of their loyalty, render true obedience to their lord." "Ye speak as a fool," said the sorceress; "why should one that may command ...
— Stories from Le Morte D'Arthur and the Mabinogion • Beatrice Clay

... great and puissant monarch of the earth, Your basso will accomplish your behest, And shew your pleasure to the Persian, As fits the legate of ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part I. • Christopher Marlowe

... permanent being consists of a spiritual principle. Unless that be called into action she lives but an ephemeral life. Let her pious capabilities be awakened, let the love of God become her ruling motive, let submission to his high behest, be the joy of her heart, and she enters that path, which conducts, eternally, toward ...
— The Young Maiden • A. B. (Artemas Bowers) Muzzey

... of her weakness. Her mind had vacillated like a shuttlecock, but no one had seen the vacillation. She was in his hands, and she must simply do as he bade her. Then she went down to Mrs Baggett's room, and told the old lady to go up-stairs at her master's behest. "I'm a-going," said Mrs Baggett. "I'm a-going. I hope he'll find every one else as good at doing what he tells 'em. But I ain't a-going to be a-doing for him or for any ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope

... behest of the great American audience that these newer toe dances are with us. You and the rest of the public that constitute our audiences demand action, tricks—or at least tricky and novel touches here and there—in your dancing entertainment. The old stuff doesn't "get ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn

... Tell her who offered Base gold for life, my breast I freely proffered To meet th' assassin's knife. There lies my sword. Fulfil her stern behest. ...
— Turandot: The Chinese Sphinx • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

... assembly to order by rapping his baton, the only symbol of his office, on the floor, and calling out, in words mystic and meaningless to him, "O yes! O yes! O yes!"[K] He little thinks that he is obeying a behest of William the Conqueror, issued eight hundred years ago, ordaining that his native tongue should be employed in the courts of England. The irresistible progress of improvement and reform have gradually displaced the intruding ...
— William the Conqueror - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... chanced that VALOUR, peerless knight, Who ne'er to King or Kaiser vailed his crest, Victorious still in bull-feast or in fight, Since first his limbs with mail he did invest, Stooped ever to that Anchoret's behest; Nor reasoned of the right, nor of the wrong, But at his bidding laid the lance in rest, And wrought fell deeds the troubled world along, For he was fierce as ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott

... horses! Fled the riders! fled my troops and horse By my side not one is now left standing." Thus the king, and raised his voice in prayer. "Great father Amon, I have known Thee well. And can the father thus forget his son? Have I in any deed forgotten Thee? Have I done aught without Thy high behest Or moved or staid against Thy sovereign will? Great am I—mighty are Egyptian kings But in the sight of Thy commanding might, Small as the chieftain of a wandering tribe. Immortal Lord, crush Thou this unclean people; Break Thou ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... right, some immutable standard of duty; he recognizes an inward law of conscience, and it becomes to him as the voice of God. He extends his analysis to history, and he finds that the universal conscience of the race has, in all ages, uttered the same behest. Should he live in Christian times, he discovers a wondrous harmony between the voice of God within the heart, and the voice of God within the pages of inspiration. And now the convention of public opinion, and the laws of the state, are revered and upheld by him, just ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... regarded each other as brother and sister. Of late she not only looked but felt herself the elder of the two, and treated him as young ladies are sometimes inclined to treat boys, in a slightly dictatorial way, ordering him about, and expecting him to obey her slightest behest; as he was invariably obedient they never quarrelled, and she always appeared to receive his service ...
— Roger Willoughby - A Story of the Times of Benbow • William H. G. Kingston

... Washington. Indeed, there was a strong presumption that if another German armed submarine had the temerity to visit an American port it might have been promptly interned, not under international law, but at the behest ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various

... Judging that He, whose handmaid I am, out of death to requicken Year after year His earth into more exquisite birth, Shadows thereby to your souls through what drear and perilous places Into what Paradise blest beacons His searching behest— Even the Heaven of Heavens where fond, long-hungered-for faces Into your own shall ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves

... not now on a lawless quest, With passions foul in the hero's breast, Moved by no greed at the fiend's behest, Gloating in lust o'er a bloody prey; But from tyrant robber the spoil to wrest, And tear down his ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... them on my heart. [She draws from her bosom a letter, reads it, and presses it to her lips.] He loves me, yes, he loves me! Oh, my God, This awful joy in mine own breast is love! To-night he will await me in our garden. Oh, for a word, a pressure of the hand! I fly, my prince, at thy most dear behest! [Exit.] ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. I (of II.), Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic • Emma Lazarus

... statement, which is no theoretical postulate, it must be remembered that no other class of instincts has required so vast a suppression at the behest of civilization as the sexual, whilst their mastery by the highest psychical processes are in most persons soonest of all relinquished. Since we have learnt to understand infantile sexuality, often so vague in its expression, so invariably overlooked and misunderstood, we are justified ...
— Dream Psychology - Psychoanalysis for Beginners • Sigmund Freud

... him touched me now. I was glad to feel that his money had never been a lure to me; it did not matter whether his estate was great or small, I could, at least, ease my conscience by obeying the behest of the old man whose name I bore, and whose interest in the finer things of life and art had ...
— The House of a Thousand Candles • Meredith Nicholson

... to read, "every German." There is something ideal in this change. If one thinks of it more seriously, however, and especially if one plans to include also the independent workmen, who meet with an accident at no one's behest but their own, the question of insurance is even more difficult. No two hours' speech of any representative can give us so much concern as this problem has given us: "How far is it possible to extend this law without creating at the very start an unfavorable condition, or reaching ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. X. • Kuno Francke

... two that stare at you from casual, everyday print? The first two you can ferret from some technical jargon, some special department of human interest or endeavor? In any of these ways you may obey the behest of these mentors. But are not such ways arbitrary, haphazard? And suppose, after doing your daily stint, you should encounter a word it behooves you to know. What then? Are you to sulk, to withhold yourself from further exertion ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... Spring Grove Cemetery and laid him beneath a majestic sycamore tree whose spreading branches seemed to represent the out-reach of his life. Years ago at his behest Christ Church had been given a plot of ground for the poor, the friendless, and the forgotten of men, "God's Acre." There, by his express wishes, Frank Nelson lies among the least of his flock, the faithful shepherd who called his own by name. Then ...
— Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati • Warren C. Herrick

... maiden's fair behest Shall bid you follow on my quest, Follow: and when God's will sees best, Revenge my death, and let me rest As one that lived and died a knight, Unstained of shame alive or dead." And Balen, wrung with sorrow, said, "That ...
— The Tale of Balen • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... of military force:—and of this force, physical courage was not a determining element, because it was just as evident in the conquered as in the conquerors. The determining element was strategy that (under the behest of policy) prepared the military and naval forces in material and personnel before they were used, and directed their operations, ...
— The Navy as a Fighting Machine • Bradley A. Fiske

... sorrow-smitten when he saw the countless host of the foreign men upon the river-bank. In his sleep that night came the vision of one in the likeness of a man, white and bright of hue. The messenger named him by his name. The helmet of night glided apart. The behest was given to look up to Heaven to find help, a token of victory. The Emperor's heart was opened and he looked up as the angel, the lovely weaver of peace, had bidden him. Above the roof of clouds he saw the Tree of Glory with its words of promise. ...
— Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days • Emily Hickey

... lad who worshipped openly at Leonie's beautiful feet, and who was seeing the world at the behest of his wealthy old father, had been ...
— Leonie of the Jungle • Joan Conquest

... motives; human sacrifice was common throughout the tropics, and was not unusual in higher latitudes; cannibalism was often enjoined; and in Peru, Florida, and Central America it was not uncommon for parents to slay their own children at the behest of a priest.[291-2] The philosophical moralist, contemplating such spectacles, has thought to recognize in them one consoling trait. All history, it has been said, shows man living under an irritated God, and seeking to appease him by sacrifice of blood; the essence of all religion, ...
— The Myths of the New World - A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America • Daniel G. Brinton

... realized that he and his guides were becoming part of a general movement of people, a flow as mindless as that of blood corpuscles through the veins, yet at the same time dimly purposeful—at least there was the feeling that it was at the behest of a ...
— The Creature from Cleveland Depths • Fritz Reuter Leiber

... Gwen's headstrong action in bringing the old lady away from the scene of this accident. She might have been provided for otherwise, but Gwen's beauty and positiveness, and her visible taking for granted that her every behest would be obeyed, had swept all obstacles away. As for her Cousin Clotilda, she was secretly chuckling all the while at the wayward young lady's reckless incurring of responsibilities ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan

... handful of centuries ago, at the behest of a fanatical priest or two, forsook all else and spent a generation in journeying to Palestine and trying to get a certain city ...
— The Subterranean Brotherhood • Julian Hawthorne

... of a certain character, is rarely to be seen. Simplicity, indeed, as regards female equestrianism, is now imperatively (and, strange to say, most judiciously) enjoined, by "that same fickle goddess, Fashion," in obedience to whose sovereign behest, a lady's horse, in the olden time, was disguised, as it were, "in cloth of gold most ...
— The Young Lady's Equestrian Manual • Anonymous

... before Thee stands, All wretched and distrest; Yet sure those ills that wring my soul Obey Thy high behest. ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... Was she not my wife, That trusted to my arm to keep her safe? Who challenged her, was he not then my foe? Why, had he named some easier behest, By Heaven, I had obeyed not even that! Then how grant this? I laughed at ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... wild eyes, wilder in the dark that came so early in this overshadowed place, was half inclined to turn round at her behest; but at that moment he perceived a possible path through the nettles and briers at the farther end of the pool and unwilling to go back to the Rectory without having visited the ruined chapel of Wych Maries he called on her to follow him. This she did fearfully ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... Grand Inquisitor, now at last fully awakened to the tremendous gravity of the situation. "And pray, senor, at whose behest do we die?" ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood

... by a dream, in which she saw her father deadly wounded by her mother and herself about to kill her brother Orestes. She bewails her fate, in having at the behest of Thoas, King of the Scythians, to sacrifice two strangers, who have been thrown on his shores. Orestes and his friend Pylades, for these are the strangers, are led ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley

... the necklace—its pearls seemed to have grown dim—and fulfilled his wife's behest. Then he began to roam about the garden, gazing from a distance at the pavilion, around which the bustle of packing was already beginning. Men were carrying out chests, lading horses ... but the Malay was not among them. An irresistible ...
— A Reckless Character - And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... brightness of it all, of the day and of the future, dazzled him and made him afraid. Then of a sudden the blood of the Thayers, in abeyance during those mad, sad, glad years of study and of striving, asserted itself again. Obeying its behest, he turned abruptly from the street where he was seeking the impresario to whom his master had sent him. In that instant, he turned his back for many a long month upon opera and upon all ...
— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray

... armor of tenderness, riveted by the knowledge of so many splendid virtues, d'Arthez obeyed this behest on the following day and went to see Madame d'Espard, who received him with charming coquetry. The marquise took very good care not to say a single word to him about the princess, but she asked him to ...
— The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan • Honore de Balzac

... Bill. To the discredit of the Papacy, Leo XIII. fell into the trap. Leo XIII. exerted pressure on the Catholic party. But they still were recalcitrant. Bismarck and the Pope proved equally persistent. Finally, at the behest of the Iron Chancellor and with the assistance of the Vicar of Christ, the Reichstag passed that fatal military law, which was the beginning of the colossal European armaments, which were to increase the political tension ...
— German Problems and Personalities • Charles Sarolea

... was his habit to salute every wayfarer he encountered on his domain; and Riguenbach, much amused by Otto's civility to one of low degree, burst into a loud laugh of derision and called after the maiden, telling her to come back. She obeyed his behest, and thereupon the two horsemen drew rein and asked the damsel whither she was bound. "To Walsdorf," she replied; and though Otto himself would have let her go forward as she pleased, the crafty Riguenbach was not so minded. "There are many dangers in the way," he said to the ...
— Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine • Lewis Spence

... their hands the fetters fell. The salt sea-wave grew fresh, and, twice a day, manna (like that which on the desert lay) covered the bark and fed them on their way. Thus, hither led, at heaven's divine behest, I saw them land— ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... well-nigh gone. He commanded Bedevere, his cupbearer, to strike off the giant's head, and deliver it to the squires, that they might bear it to the host, for the greater marvel. Bedevere did after his lord's behest. He drew his sword, and divided the head from the shoulders. Wonderfully huge and hideous to sight was the head of this giant. Never, said Arthur, had he known such fear; neither had met so perilous a giant, save only that Riton, who had ...
— Arthurian Chronicles: Roman de Brut • Wace

... of York seemed sunk in a dull apathy, Clifford and Arlington were busy in conversation. What did she mean? Did she confess that I held their secret and impose silence on me by a more than royal command, by the behest of bright eyes and red lips which dared me to betray their confidence? On the moment's impulse I bowed assent; Madame nodded merrily and waved a kiss with her dainty hand; no word passed, but I felt that I, being a gentleman, could tell no man alive what I suspected, aye, what I knew, concerning ...
— Simon Dale • Anthony Hope

... North and South, he was fully persuaded that the new pro-slavery crusade against liberty boded civil war. He knew that the white men in North and South would not, without a struggle, consent to be permanently deprived of their liberties at the behest of a few Southern planters. Being himself of the slaveholding class, he was peculiarly fitted to appreciate their position. To him the new issue meant war, unless the belligerent leaders should be shown that war ...
— The Anti-Slavery Crusade - Volume 28 In The Chronicles Of America Series • Jesse Macy

... "Thou shalt to meet them / before the palace go, So that we see them gladly / they may surely know." Then did the royal lady / fulfil the king's behest. Yet Siegfried in the greeting / was not honored ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... this era joyous, bright? Is it a cloudless eve or starless night? To those who're busied in life's brilliant dawn With gathering flowers that bloom when spring is gone, And, ere their morning sun begins to wane, Add many a link to fond affection's chain, To Heaven's supreme behest have meekly bowed— 'Twill prove indeed an ...
— Heart Utterances at Various Periods of a Chequered Life. • Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney

... near apoplexy. He could only sputter and cough. He was to be sent as an errand boy to the people of Charles Town, at the brutal behest of this unspeakable knave, but refusal meant death and there were his fellow captives to consider. He thought of his nephew and was about to plead that Jack be sent along with him ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine

... unlawful for one to enter a banqueting-house for thirty days after the death of a relative; but he must refrain from so doing for twelve months after the demise of either father or mother, unless on the behest of some higher ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... curiosity, had we not other business for thee, friend," said the malicious little devilkin. "Place thy fingers on thy thigh, and swear by Hecate, Merlin, and the Fairies' Hall, that within three days thou wilt fulfil our behest." ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby

... alone as a contributor to theological literature. In recent times no man has done so much to draw the world's delighted attention to the subjects of supreme solicitude. No production of a mortal pen has found so many readers as one work of his; and none has awakened so frequently the sighing behest, "Let me die the ...
— Life of Bunyan • Rev. James Hamilton

... to hear it," said Albric the dwarf, "for now I know, by thy prowess, that thou art worthy to be the lord of this land, and I will do all thy behest, ...
— The Fall of the Niebelungs • Unknown

... holy man Augustine fared over sea, and came to the city Arles, and by AEtherius, archbishop of the said city, according to the behest and commandment of the blessed father St. Gregory, was hallowed archbishop of the English people, and returned and fared into Britain, and soon sent messengers to Rome, that was Laurence a mass-priest and Peter a monk, that ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 4 • Various

... Where, blazoned sable, as before, The towering falcon seemed to soar. Last, twenty yeomen, two and two, In hosen black, and jerkins blue, With falcons broidered on each breast, Attended on their lord's behest: Each, chosen for an archer good, Knew hunting-craft by lake or wood; Each one a six-foot bow could bend, And far a clothyard shaft could send; Each held a boar-spear tough and strong, And at their belts their quivers rung. Their ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott

... slavishly, at her behest he fares. Who knows but this time the "crimson quest" may deepen to a sunrise, not decay to that cold ...
— Browning's Heroines • Ethel Colburn Mayne

... desperation, in attempting to defend their first and most sacred rights; who could place before our eyes the leaders of these enormities, from the notorious Duke of Lauderdale downwards to the fellow mind that executed his behest, precisely as they lived and looked,—such a chronicler cannot justly be charged with attempting to extenuate or throw into the shade the corruptions of a government that soon afterwards fell a victim to its ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson

... had a signal unpleasantness in store, and would not hazard their resignation. They had taken advantage of an imperial ukase to enter the service of the Russian-American Company temporarily, and they knew that if they evaded any behest of Rezanov's their adventurous life in the Pacific would be over. Therefore, although they resented his implacable will, they pulled with him in outward amity; and indeed there were few of the Juno's human freight that ...
— Rezanov • Gertrude Atherton

... girls' uncle had now sent directions to them to come again. "I'll go and ask mamma about it," said Bell, who was out first. And then she returned, saying, that she and her sister would obey their uncle's behest; but that her mother would prefer to remain at home. "There are the peas to be eaten, you know," ...
— The Small House at Allington • Anthony Trollope

... Legier stay behind, And move the Greekish Prince to send us aid, Tell him his kingly promise doth him bind To give us succors, by his covenant made." This said, and thus instruct, his letters signed The trusty herald took, nor longer stayed, But sped him thence to done his Lord's behest, And thus the Duke reduced his ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... rising. He had been somewhat languidly drifting with events for the last fortnight, and letting May's fair looks and radiant nature obliterate the rather importunate pressure of the Mingott claims. But this behest of old Mrs. Mingott's roused him to a sense of what the clan thought they had the right to exact from a prospective son-in-law; and he ...
— The Age of Innocence • Edith Wharton

... the existence of such an organization meant, what a menace to the peace of the world must lie here, what dreadful things were almost hourly happening about me at behest of this invisible monster known as Fire-Tongue, I yet confess—for I am here to speak the truth—that, although I had now fully recovered my strength, I lingered on in a delicious idleness, which you who hear me must find ...
— Fire-Tongue • Sax Rohmer

... we used to fight For our Lords on sea and coast, But our soldiers then were as one to ten, Not a permanent armored host! Nor do we claim to obey the God They worship in the West; But, since they do, is it not true That they mock at His first behest? ...
— Poems • John L. Stoddard

... months later, at the behest of our Government, the French arms were withdrawn, the bubble of Mexican Empire vanished, and the ill-fated Maximilian had bravely met his tragic end. Thenceforth, a resident but no longer a citizen of the land that had given him birth, William M. Gwin, to the ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... hours and forty minutes, and the peroration was thrilling. When exhausted, and closing, he lifted his eyes to the national flag, floating above the Speaker's chair, and said, in an almost exhausted voice, "If, Mr. Speaker, in obedience to the necessities and corrupt behest of party, you are determined to wrest from Mississippi her rights as a sister, and coequal in this union of States, and turn from their seats her representatives constitutionally chosen, and place in their stead the repudiated of her people, strike from the flag which waves above you the ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... Ambassador to Berlin reported by telegraph to his Government on July 27, 1914, that the Imperial German Government considered that the proposed conference amounted practically to a court of arbitration and could not be called except at the behest of Austria-Hungary and Russia. The German Government therefore turned down the British proposal. But Germany was not for provoking a war; the German Ambassador at London informed the British Foreign Office that his Government ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various

... headed the boat for the shore, hoping thus to escape from the racing current into slower water to the left. But the "Eb and Flo" was in the grip of a stronger master, and swinging partly around, obeyed the current's strong behest. Leaving the now useless wheel, Eben rushed to the side of the boat and lifted up his voice in a series of ringing calls for help. He was heard on shore, and he saw men running to and fro. Several tugs were lying at their wharves, ...
— Jess of the Rebel Trail • H. A. Cody

... the ground, She smote each minister of sacrifice With piteous glances, mute As is a picture, and in vain essayed To speak. She many a time In hospitable hall Had sung, and with her innocent, chaste voice Wished to her sire health and prosperity. What then ensued I saw not nor recount. The seer's behest was done. ...
— Specimens of Greek Tragedy - Aeschylus and Sophocles • Goldwin Smith

... tender devotion! What earnest fidelity! What brave and romantic faith! Had she breathed on some talisman, and called up some obedient genie to her aid, the spirit could not have been more loyal, nor the completion of her behest more ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli

... turbine gate wheels. A soft tremor ran through the building, growing steadily to a deep, hoarse rumble as the massive grindstones revolved faster. The floor vibrated in a quick rhythm, and in a few seconds came the full drone of work—that profound and elemental note of nature when she toils at the behest of man. ...
— The Rapids • Alan Sullivan

... ten never-ending years I sat upon Tintagel's tower and watched With anxious eyes the many ships sail o'er The green expanse from sky to sky. 'Twas not For this; that day by day Paranis went, At my behest, down to the port, while I Sat counting every minute, one by one, Until he should return, and tell me tales Of ships and lands indifferent as a fly's Short life to me!—And now thou tellest me A ship is here; a great gold sail lies moor'd ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various



Words linked to "Behest" :   command, dictation, bid, bidding



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