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Retreat   /ritrˈit/   Listen
Retreat

verb
(past & past part. retreated; pres. part. retreating)
1.
Pull back or move away or backward.  Synonyms: draw back, move back, pull away, pull back, recede, retire, withdraw.  "The limo pulled away from the curb"
2.
Move away, as for privacy.
3.
Move back.  Synonym: retrograde.
4.
Make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity.  Synonyms: back away, back out, crawfish, crawfish out, pull back, pull in one's horns, withdraw.  "He backed out of his earlier promise" , "The aggressive investment company pulled in its horns"



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"Retreat" Quotes from Famous Books



... increased forces which have come to me, and the fact that I have your line of retreat securely within my hands, the time seems fitting that I should again demand of your Excellency the surrender of Santiago and your Excellency's army. I am authorized to state that should your Excellency so desire, the Government ...
— The Colored Regulars in the United States Army • T. G. Steward

... increasing in their power over the lives of men; if business methods are becoming less rapacious; if employers and employed are more and more inclined to be friends rather than foes; if politicians are growing conscientious and unselfish; if the enemies of society are in retreat before the forces of decency and order; if amusements are becoming purer and more rational; if polite society is getting to be simpler in its tastes and less ostentatious in its manners and less extravagant in its expenditures; if poverty and crime ...
— The Church and Modern Life • Washington Gladden

... adieu, but he had none to offer. He saw no more clearly now into the truth than he had done at the beginning of the interview, but he had in a measure hardened himself by the spoken definition of his own attitude, and, partly because he could not as yet retreat from it, he permitted her to go without another word She floated away in the alternate soft splendour of the moon and the deep shadow of the overhanging boughs, and he watched her gloomily until her figure disappeared at the end of the avenue. He stood ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray

... late to retreat. I promised myself I would not return without a fight, and I intend to keep that promise. We will carry out the plan ourselves, as much of it at least as we can. I trust Putnam got Griffin off, and that his skirmishers may draw out Von Donop. But be that as it may, ...
— For Love of Country - A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... chance whatever for Yearlings Pratt and Judson to retreat unseen. The door across the hall had been left open, and the tac. would be sure to detect ...
— Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point • H. Irving Hancock

... carrying at his breast, fortunately, full of shells, only slightly wounded one of his fingers. The man, who to all appearance was dangerously wounded, for the spear stuck in the hat and hung suspended in the air, drew it out, and, throwing it on the ground with the greatest composure, continued to retreat. The natives then finding we were not intimidated or hurt by the spears, began to make friendly gestures, which we, of course, returned, but still continued to walk away with our ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... Guard, "read extracts from La Liberte. The barbarians are in despair. Nancy is threatened, Belfort is freed. Bourbaki is invading Baden. Our fleets are pointing their cannon upon Hamburg. Their country endangered, their retreat cut off, the sole hope of Bismarck and his trembling legions is to find a refuge in Paris. The increasing fury of the bombardment is ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... strength gave out; then, curling up in his narrow quarters, he lay listening. At first he heard nothing, not even a sound from the dog; and he wondered at the fact. He could not believe that Tom Blair would leave him in peace, and he breathlessly awaited the first tap of an instrument against his retreat. A minute passed, lengthened to five—to ten—and with the quick impatience of childhood he started to learn the reason of the delay. His active little body revolved in its nest. In the darkness a wiry arm scratched at the recently erected barricade. A head with a tousled mass of hair poked its ...
— Ben Blair - The Story of a Plainsman • Will Lillibridge

... smile upon thee; for mercy will smile upon him that shall thus believe (2 Cor 3:16-18). This is the way to put faith and hope both to work against the devil; and to do this is very pleasing to God. This the way to make that hell-bound retreat and leave off to assault (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9). And this is the way to find an answer to many scriptures, with which else thou wilt not know what to do, as with many of the types and shadows; yea, and ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... at a distance and watched the Ranger, his prisoner, and three other men mount the horses. The rest of the posse covered the retreat of the horsemen. ...
— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine

... distinguished Florentine, John Villani, who was himself carried off by the Black Plague, scarcely a third part of the population remained alive; and it is related of the Venetians, that they engaged ships at a high rate to retreat to the islands; so that after the plague had carried off three- fourths of her inhabitants, that proud city was left forlorn and desolate. In Padua, after the cessation of the plague, two-thirds of the inhabitants were wanting; and in ...
— The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania • Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker

... hands were seized with tender empressement, and I was addressed as "my love," "My darling," "my dear creature:" and all the conventional endearments of the pave were showered upon me. I had to struggle for enlargement, and beat a hasty retreat, quite confounded by my initiation into "prison discipline." And the consternation occasioned by ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward

... "We're on the verge of ruin. Do you intend to let me pull things together? If not I shall retire to Hendon on my jointure." (Hendon represented a convent to which she occasionally went for what is called a "retreat" in Catholic circles.) And poor dear Edward knew nothing—absolutely nothing. He did not know how much money he had, as he put it, "blued" at the tables. It might have been a quarter of a million for all he remembered. He did ...
— The Good Soldier • Ford Madox Ford

... cap hastily and turned away—walking with those measured steps towards the barracks; whither now all the companies of grey figures were in full retreat. I stood wondering, and then slowly returned with my friends to the hotel; much puzzled to account for Preston's discomposure and strange injunctions. The sunlight had left the tops of the hills; the river slept in the gathering ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell

... For d'Ache in his retreat still plotted and made an effort to resume, with the English minister, the intrigue that had just failed so miserably, Moreau having withdrawn at the last minute. The royalist party was less intimidated than exasperated at the deaths of the Duke d'Enghien, Georges and Pichegru, ...
— The House of the Combrays • G. le Notre

... mammas to send him to be instantly undressed; but nobody even saw it, and he charged instantly towards the door of the summer-house, not pursuing anyone in particular, but cutting all off from their retreat. He slipped aside, however, and let all the lesser game pass by uncaught; his soul soared higher than even Uncle John, who looked on exceedingly amused at the small man's stratagem, and at the long dodging that took place ...
— The Stokesley Secret • Charlotte M. Yonge

... they turned their attention again to Gleeson. But they had not hurried over their meal, having little care or consideration for him; and he, recovering consciousness while yet they were engaged, felt no qualms about making his retreat as quickly and as quietly as possible. Aching in every bone, and with every muscle bruised, he crept away through the shelter of the scrub, not daring to look for the swag he had thrown down, or the hat which had been knocked from his head. There was ...
— Colonial Born - A tale of the Queensland bush • G. Firth Scott

... express his joy before appetite could be gratified. After a few years he seemed to adopt me as a kind of mate! for as spring came round he endeavoured to construct a nest by stealing little twigs out of the grate and flying with them to a chosen retreat behind an ornamental scroll at the top of the looking-glass. He spent a great deal of time fussing about this nest, which never came to anything, but he very obligingly attended to my supposed wants by picking up an occasional fly, or piece of sugar, and, hovering before me ...
— Wild Nature Won By Kindness • Elizabeth Brightwen

... which is famed over every country, O son of Pandu! In that spot, O exalted one, men attain to (ascetic) success without severe austerities. Here also, O mighty king, is the region called Jamvumarga, inhabited by birds and deer, and which constitutes the retreat of ascetics with souls under control, O thou foremost of those that have subdued their senses! Next lie the exceedingly sacred Ketumala, and Medhya ever graced with ascetics, and, O lord of earth, Gangadwara, and the well-known woods of Saindhava which are sacred and inhabited ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... ever. There was a fine performance, that night, in the Chestnut Street Theatre, and I had sent to take places for it. But when I arrived I saw a huge poster over the door—"Prince de Joinville at 8.30," and beat an instant and hasty retreat. As soon as I got to Washington I repaired to the White House to pay my respects to General Tyler. He was a blunt-spoken man with a big nose, who had successively filled the posts of governor of his own State (Virginia) and of President of the United States, in each case in consequence of the death ...
— Memoirs • Prince De Joinville

... calculated to infuriate the brains of their adherents. A saint, when he is tranquil, proposes nothing whose accomplishment will benefit mankind, and only aims to keep himself safe and secluded in his retreat. A saint, when he is active, only appears to promulgate reveries dangerous to the world, and to uphold the interests of the church, that he confounds with the interest ...
— Letters to Eugenia - or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices • Baron d'Holbach

... his skill once more. Taking Pandarus with him in his own chariot, he drove rapidly to where Diomede was dealing death amongst the Trojans with his terrible sword. Sthenʹe-lus, the companion and charioteer of Diomede, saw them coming, and he advised his friend to retreat, and not risk his life in a contest with two such heroes as Æneas and Pandarus, one the son of a goddess, and the other excelling all men in the use of the bow. But Diomede sternly refused to retire from the conflict. Nor would he even consent to mount his chariot ...
— The Story of Troy • Michael Clarke

... The snow has drifted to such a degree that it is impossible to get to the Chase. I went out the day before yesterday with Carlo as a guide. When I did not clearly make out my way, I sent him forward, and sometimes I could only see his black head emerging from the snow. So I had to retreat." ...
— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli

... atmosphere, The dim wild-carrot lifts its crumpled crest: And over all, at slender flight or rest, The dragon-flies, like coruscating rays Of lapis-lazuli and chrysoprase, Drowsily sparkle through the summer days; And, dewlap-deep, here from the noontide heat The bell-hung cattle find a cool retreat: And through the willows girdling the hill, Now far, now near, borne as the soft winds will, Comes the low rushing of the water-mill. Ah, lovely to me from a little child, How changed the place! wherein once, undefiled, The glad communion of the sky and stream Went with me like a presence and ...
— Myth and Romance - Being a Book of Verses • Madison Cawein

... began gazing about through his glasses, to the right hand and to the left. He had lost thought of the tide, and in such circumstances as ours a very few seconds does the business. When he next looked, we were sweeping down on the Seminole without a chance of retreat; there was nothing but to go ahead fast, and save the hulls at least from collision. Her flying jib-boom came in just behind our main-mast (we had only two masts); and as the current of course was setting us down steadily, the topping-lifts ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... would bring me in sight of pursuers. There was the Chesapeake bay to the right, and "Pot-pie" river to the left, and St. Michael's and its neighborhood occupying the only space through which there was any retreat. ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass

... admirable army which is made up of two armies, which has now been reviewed, and which has started for Mutina, and which, if it hears a word of peace, that is to say, of our fear, even if it does not return, will at all events halt. For who, when the senate recals him and sounds a retreat, will be ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero

... narrowing circle. Then the stag moved off slowly, with stately, easy, gliding steps, constantly looking back. The hinds preceded him: they reached the edge of the valley, and disappeared. We galloped up, and found that they had exchanged the slow retreat for a rapid flight, clearing every slight or suspicious obstacle with a grace, ease, and swiftness it was delightful to witness. In an incredibly short time they had disappeared, hidden by undulations in ...
— A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses • J. S. Rarey

... was crooning a plaintive love-song and her gondolier was coming in occasionally with bars of melodious bass. I felt guilty for being about to break in upon such a sentimental little scene, and was going to retreat, but Enrico and Mona Lisa spied me and both gave a little cry of ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 4 (of 14) - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters • Elbert Hubbard

... turned, they were menaced by the most appalling dangers; and better was it bravely to confront the danger, than weakly to shrink from it, when there was no avenue for escape. To fly was now too late. Whither could they fly? At the first signal of retreat, the whole army of the Inca would be upon them. Their movements would be anticipated by a foe far better acquainted with the intricacies of the sierra than themselves; the passes would be occupied, and they would be hemmed in on all sides; ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... attacked by the wild Basques and had been forced to retire. It was upon this occasion that Roland, the great Margrave of Breton, showed what a Frankish chieftain of those early days meant when he promised to be faithful to his King, and gave his life and that of his trusted followers to safeguard the retreat of the ...
— The Story of Mankind • Hendrik van Loon

... by side, so that each presented a single front much wider than deep; this being always the plan followed by modern armies when, as at Ravenna, the ground is open. For knowing the disorder they fall into on retreat, forming themselves in a single line, they endeavour, as I have said, as much as possible to escape confusion by extending their front. But where the ground confines them they fall at once into the disorder spoken of, without an ...
— Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius • Niccolo Machiavelli

... beat a quiet retreat to his wife, who was stupefied by the invasion of this ferocious animal, and very uneasy at his co-operation in ...
— Pierre Grassou • Honore de Balzac

... worth the traveller's while to make an excursion to Burnaba, a place lying on the sea-coast not far from the town, and serving, like Halizar, as a retreat for the townspeople during the summer. The views in this direction are various, and the road is good. The whole appearance of the place is that of a very extended village, with all its houses standing in the midst of gardens and surrounded ...
— A Visit to the Holy Land • Ida Pfeiffer

... Lucy winced with sensitive modesty, and for once a shade of vexation showed itself on her lovely features. The quick-sighted, keen-witted matron caught it, and instantly made a masterly move of feigned retreat. "No," cried she, "I will not tease you anymore, love; just promise me not to receive any gentleman's addresses at Font Abbey, and I will never drive you from my arms to ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade

... trivial conceptions, whether of knowledge or pleasure, will spoil the discussion, and will prove the incapacity of the two disputants. In order to avoid this danger, he proposes that they shall beat a retreat, and, before they proceed, come to an understanding about the 'high argument' of the ...
— Philebus • Plato

... could not clearly recognize the place. This seemed odd to me, for when I retired from the rebel army in '61 I retired upon Louisiana in good order; at least in good enough order for a person who had not yet learned how to retreat according to the rules of war, and had to trust to native genius. It seemed to me that for a first attempt at a retreat it was not badly done. I had done no advancing in all that campaign that was at ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... attack the army of Naiam, who resolved to stand the issue of a battle. To every ten thousand horse in the army of Kublai, five hundred light armed footmen with lances were assigned, who had been taught to leap up behind the horsemen on any occasion when flight or retreat became necessary, and were instructed to alight, and kill the horses of the enemy during battle. The two armies joined in a well contested battle, which lasted from morning till mid-day, when Naiam was made prisoner, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr

... the urchin was about to retreat, when Henry made a sudden dart at him, and caught him by ...
— Gascoyne, The Sandal Wood Trader - A Tale of the Pacific • R. M. Ballantyne

... away, the wind gradually getting heavier and the sea rising, until the motion of the cutter compelled Mabel and the Quartermaster to retreat also. Cap wore several times; and it was now evident that the Scud was drifting into the broader and deeper parts of the lake, the seas raging down upon her in a way that none but a vessel of superior mould and build could have long ridden ...
— The Pathfinder - The Inland Sea • James Fenimore Cooper

... yet; and I feel sure that after he has swept the country round of everything worth taking he will retreat south." ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn

... but determined. Some spark of intuition enabled her to see that any intrusion of Kresney set the matter beyond the pale of possible things; and nothing remained for Linda but compromise or retreat. ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... 15, 1862. In recognition of his services at Antietam, Sergeant McKinley was made second lieutenant, his commission dating from September 24, 1862, and on February 7, 1863, while at Camp Piatt, he was again promoted, receiving the rank of first lieutenant. In the retreat near Lynchburg, Va., his regiment marched 180 miles, fighting nearly all the time, with scarcely any rest or food. Lieutenant McKinley conducted himself with gallantry, and at Winchester won additional honors. ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents • William McKinley

... less pleasant—his aunt's pony carriage. It had crossed the railway, and was advancing up the Roman road along by the straw sacks. His impulse was to retreat, but someone waved to him. It was Agnes. She waved continually, as much as to say, "Wait for us." Mrs. Failing herself raised the whip in a nonchalant way. Stephen Wonham was following on foot, some way behind. He put the Shelley back into his pocket and waited for them. When the carriage stopped ...
— The Longest Journey • E. M. Forster

... completely taken up by the shooting that at the end it was too late even for Retreat, and we in the middle of our washing up watched the other battalion at parade, stood at attention while the band played the Star-Spangled Banner, and saluted at the end. I have spent much of the evening ...
— At Plattsburg • Allen French

... the man with the handbill, and in ominous silence listened to the tidings of the massacre at Lexington, the destruction of stores at Concord, the quick gathering of the militia from the hills and dales around Reading and Roxbury, the retreat of the British under their harassing fire, until, worn out and disorganized, they had found a refuge in Boston. "And this is the postscript at the last moment," added the reader: "'Men are pouring in from all the country ...
— The Bow of Orange Ribbon - A Romance of New York • Amelia E. Barr

... Joe and Fred and Charley, a long and peculiar whistle came to their ears from the street—the warning signal, evidently, of a scout posted to keep a lookout. The next moment the scout himself came flying back to the main body, which was already beginning to retreat. ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London

... and his sworn ally, the Lady Castlemaine. A warrant was issued for Buckingham's apprehension; and when he withdrew from the Court, a proclamation was published that charged him with treason, and required his surrender. The sheriff's messenger that followed him to his retreat in the country was openly defied, and Buckingham managed for weeks to elude the clutches of the law. The dignity of justice was degraded, and the King's warrant was mocked, as long as Buckingham thought he might rely ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik

... December, 1856. He had the moral courage to come out of the groove which he had so laboriously made for himself, and to leave a large and prosperous business, saying, "I have now enough of this world's goods; let younger men have their chance." He settled down at his rural retreat in Kent, but not to lead a life of idle ease. Industry had become his habit, and active occupation was necessary to his happiness. He fell back upon the cultivation of those artistic tastes which are the heritage of his family. When a boy ...
— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles

... a city like Cincinnati menaced by a hungry foe, striding on by forced marches, that foe sees his path suddenly blocked by ten miles of fortifications thoroughly manned and armed, and he finds it prudent, even with his twenty thousand veterans, to retreat faster than he came, strewing the road with whatever articles impede his haste. Some few incidents in the career of such a man, since he has taken the field, ought not to be uninteresting to those for whom he has fought so ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. • Various

... longer there. She told him that her beauty increased with such intensity at every fresh ascent among the stars, that he would no longer have been able to bear the smile; and they were now in the seventh Heaven, or the planet Saturn, the retreat of those who had passed their ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 • Leigh Hunt

... pushed gently into the study of Hugh Kinross, and all retreat cut off behind her by the silent ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner

... by a belated reluctance to appear before so much of Hatboro' in charge of the minister's child. But now she could not retreat, and with Idella's hand in hers she advanced blushing up ...
— Annie Kilburn - A Novel • W. D. Howells

... wait till thou hast heard The voice of Heracles, and weighed his word. Him thou beholdest from the Heavenly seat Come down, for thee leaving the blest retreat, To tell thee all high Zeus intends, and stay Thy purpose in the journey of to-day. Then hear me, first how after my long toils By strange adventure I have found and won Immortal glory, which thine eyes perceive; And the like lot, I tell thee, shall be thine, After these pains to rise to glorious ...
— The Seven Plays in English Verse • Sophocles

... for meditation. There are few situations which provide more scope for meditation than that of the man penned up on a small balcony a considerable distance from the ground, with his only avenue of retreat cut off behind him. So George meditated. First, he mused on Plummer. He thought some hard thoughts about Plummer. Then he brooded on the unkindness of a fortune which had granted him the opportunity of this meeting with Maud, only to snatch it away almost before it had begun. He wondered ...
— A Damsel in Distress • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... Squirrels are the elegant Chipmunks, the prettiest and most popular of all the family. They frequent the borderland between woods and prairie; they climb, if anything is to be gained by it, but they know, like the Ground-squirrels, that Mother Earth is a safer retreat in time of danger than the tallest tree ...
— Wild Animals at Home • Ernest Thompson Seton

... one thing more to recommend to you, which you will not forget—you know that the only success that the enemy gained over us, last season, was owing to the want of provisions. There was much waste at Amherstberg—the consequence was that you and my warriors were forced to retreat. In future you must be careful of provisions, and use only what may be necessary; they are the same as powder and ball, we cannot ...
— First History of New Brunswick • Peter Fisher

... Sigismond Thalberg, whose performances aroused Paris, alert for a new sensation, into an enthusiasm which quickly mounted to boiling heat. Humors of the danger threatened to his hitherto acknowledged ascendancy reached Liszt in his Swiss retreat. The artist's ambition was stirred to the quick; he could not sleep at night with the thought of this victorious rival who was snatching his laurels, and he hastened back to Paris to meet Thalberg on his ...
— Great Violinists And Pianists • George T. Ferris

... went, passing the "Melbourne Saloon," the "Sydney Saloon," the "London Hotel," the "American Hotel," the "Californians' Retreat," and numbers of other tents, decorated with huge letters of black paint, and all setting forth the peculiar merits which each offered to ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... every bullet aimed at a Latooka struck a rock, while rocks, stones, and lances were hurled at them from all sides and from above. Compelled to retreat, they were seized with a panic, and ...
— Great African Travellers - From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley • W.H.G. Kingston

... by the Russians, and in order to extricate our army and prevent it from being surrounded and cut off, we constantly had to retreat, one detachment taking up positions to resist the advancing Russians, trying to hold them at all costs in order to give the rest of the army sufficient time to retire to safety. This maneuvering could not, of course, be carried ...
— Four Weeks in the Trenches - The War Story of a Violinist • Fritz Kreisler

... drove him from me—" She held her breath in the terror of such a possibility, and an awe of her ignorance crept over Halleck. Apparently she had not understood the step that Bartley had taken, except as a stage in their quarrel from which they could both retreat, if they would, as easily as from any other dispute; she had not realized it as a final, an almost irrevocable act on his part, which could only be met by reprisal on hers. All those points of law which had been so sharply enforced upon her must have fallen blunted from her longing ...
— A Modern Instance • William Dean Howells

... as I appeared at the opera my father followed my track, and discovered the retreat of his daughters. One evening behind the scenes, he went straight to the count and insulted him. The count answered him, with great deference, that he would avoid the chance of taking the life of a gallant gentleman who had given birth to such a daughter ...
— The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II • Various

... nephew be not an old or hardened offender, he has committed some depredations of the consequences of which, were they proved upon him, he himself is ignorant. His accomplice has discovered his retreat; another more private lodging has therefore been taken for him, to which he is to remove with all possible caution. And when he is sufficiently recovered, which Mrs. Clarke tells me will be soon, he is then to depart ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... the stairs, and on hands and knees now, lest she should make a sound, began to crawl upward. And a little way up, panic fear seized upon her again, and her heart stood still, and she turned a miserable face in the darkness back toward the door below, and fought against the impulse to retreat again. ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... of November, 1812, during the fatal retreat from Russia, Commandant Tascher, desiring to bring back to France the body of his general, who had been killed by a bullet, and who had been buried since the day before, disinterred him, and, upon putting him into a landau, and noticing that he was still ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885 • Various

... GENERALS General Smith-Dorrien, British Corps Commander in the famous retreat from Mons; Generals Plumer, Rawlinson and Byng, Commanders on the Western Front; General Birdwood, Commander of the Australian-New ...
— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

... as a direct overflow from India, for instance in Turkestan and Afghanistan, and partly as entering, together with much other matter, into the doctrines of Neoplatonists and Manichaeans. Amid the intolerant victories of early Islam such ideas would naturally retreat, but they soon recovered and effected an entrance into the later phases of the faith and were strengthened by the visits of Sufi pilgrims ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot

... troops scattered about that Rupert resolved to beat up their quarters; and leaving Oxford in the afternoon of Saturday, the 17th of June, he seized the bridge over the Thame at Chiselhampton, and leaving a force of foot to secure his retreat, threw himself boldly with his horsemen into the midst of the Parliamentary army. Essex with the bulk of his men lay quietly sleeping a few miles to the northward at Thame as Rupert struck in the darkness through the leafy lanes that led to the Chilterns, and swooped ...
— History of the English People, Volume VI (of 8) - Puritan England, 1642-1660; The Revolution, 1660-1683 • John Richard Green

... on the pavement with his night stick, and the resonant sound stopped Burke's retreat to the station. Officer 4434 wheeled about and ran for the post ...
— Traffic in Souls - A Novel of Crime and Its Cure • Eustace Hale Ball

... too much. So we fought. And we conquered; but how? It was all expressed in a few words, which I heard uttered by a common man at a Bulletin board, on the dreadful day when we first read the news of the retreat at Bull Run: "It's hard—but we must buckle up and go at it again." It is very strange that the South never understood that among the mud-sills and toiling slaves and factory serfs of the North the spirit which had ...
— Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland

... the elder man was tiring, and the youngster must have shared that opinion. There was a leap to the right, a sudden flurry of dart and retreat, and then a net curled high and fell, enfolding flailing arms and kicking legs. When the clutch rope was jerked tight, the captured youth was thrown off balance. He rolled frenziedly, but there was ...
— Plague Ship • Andre Norton

... it on the north side of the lake; they then followed along the margin of the lake westward, and about midnight reached the encampment of their friends—the alarm was given, and next morning they all joined in the retreat westward. They proceeded a few miles in order to reach a secure and retired place to halt at, in the hope soon of hearing something of the two Indians whom Captain Buchan had taken with him. On the second day the Indians appeared among them, ...
— Lecture On The Aborigines Of Newfoundland • Joseph Noad

... seclusion of the pleasant Devonshire retreat, the "Ship" was translated in the year 1508, when he would be about thirty-two, "by Alexander Barclay Preste; and at that tyme chaplen in the sayde College," whence it may be inferred that he left Devon, either in that year or the ...
— The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 • Sebastian Brandt

... reached my destination. I had been erroneously informed that the Union Army was on the retreat—quite gone from the neighborhood; and next day, believing the coast was clear, I donned a summer suit and with a neighbor boy who had been wounded at Shiloh and invalided home, rode over to visit some young ladies. ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson

... time suspended. A party, likewise, who found themselves eclipsed in Richard's favor, Sydenham, Kelsey, Berry, Haines, joined the cabal of the others. Even Desborow, the protector's uncle, lent his authority to that faction. But above all, the intrigues of Lambert, who was now roused from his retreat, inflamed all those dangerous humors, and threatened the nation with some great convulsion. The discontented officers established their meetings in Fleetwood's apartments; and because he dwelt in Wallingford House, the party received a ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part E. - From Charles I. to Cromwell • David Hume

... when rebellion is put down, the nation can survive; and there is now left us no escape from death or disgrace except in the announcement of freedom as a principle. Do this, and you have enlisted new recruits from men who will nobly dare to die, but never will retreat. Do this, and the mothers of the country will continue to lay their precious sons upon the altar, not as "Union soldiers," as before, but as heroes of a new republic. Do this, and woman, the subtle architect of society, will teach you how to walk the very verge of death with ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... not dimmed nor deadened my faculties, for I am occupied at the present time with very important work and I write steadily. But my real life is passed in my visions, which take me into another world quite as real as this sensuous one, and where I always retreat on all occasions possible. And yet, a strange paradox—I am a convinced Stoic and almost confine my reading to Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and the 'Imitation.' I am extremely emotional, fond of the society of women, though I loathe the sexual side of them, and when I love, though passion ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... forcing the passage. He even joined several armed paraws in this attack; but Naramuhin made a resolute defence, in which he was bravely seconded by Laurenzo Moreno and several other Portuguese, and effectually resisted every effort of the zamorins troops, who were obliged to retreat with much loss. Several such assaults were made on the ford, in all of which the zamorin lost many men, and was constantly repulsed, insomuch that he became fearful of a sinister end to his unjust enterprise, and ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr

... rapid click or two of bones being replaced, the sound of the closing lid in the darkness, and by the time the consulting-room door as thrown open, and a warm glow of light shone across the surgery, Bob had effected his retreat. ...
— The Bag of Diamonds • George Manville Fenn

... yield to her entreaties; but this proposed retreat through the back-door was too revolting to his pride to be thought of for a moment. "I will never consent to such a thing," he declared. "What would they think of me? Besides I owe them their revenge and I ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... variance with the fact of the case. That smooth stone had been often trodden, and by what foot he could not doubt. He rose up from his seat to look round for other signs of a woman's visits. What if there is a cavern here, where she has a retreat, fitted up, perhaps, as anchorites fitted their cells,—nay, it may be, carpeted and mirrored, and with one of those tiger-skins for a couch, such as they, say the girl loves to lie on? Let us ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... reinforced by the three thousand sabres which we had held in reserve, flash out like arrows from their posts and fall upon the disordered flanks of Sorais' forces, and that charge decided the issue of the battle. In another minute or two the enemy was in slow and sullen retreat across the little stream, where they once more re-formed. Then came another lull, during which I managed to get a second horse, and received my orders to advance from Sir Henry, and then with one fierce deep-throated roar, with ...
— Allan Quatermain • by H. Rider Haggard

... love thus accommodated itself to dark and clear nights. Their hearts were ever on the alert, and a little shade sufficed to sweeten the pleasure of their embrace, and soften their laughter. This dearly-loved retreat—so gay in the moonshine, so strangely thrilling in the gloom—seemed an inexhaustible source of both gaiety and silent emotion. They would remain there until midnight, while the town dropped off to sleep and the lights in the windows of the ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola

... upon her retreat, he leaned back, holding to the edge of the table, and laughed with his chin ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell

... With this retreat from the forward trench line ended the opening phase of the battle. It was achieved in good order, and position was taken up on the first floor landing, dominating the main staircase and the passage that led to ...
— Huntingtower • John Buchan

... among all five men that the gate was to be held as long as possible; that if it fell, a second stand should be made behind the crescent-shaped barricade outside the dining-room door; that, should this defence fall also, all must retreat into the dining-room, where the two sisters must remain throughout the attack; and this would be the ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... it appears pursued and rather fatigued his Majesty with her rights and her wrongs. Some say that the cause of her leaving Court was jealousy of Frank Esmond's wife: others, that she was forced to retreat after a great battle which took place at Whitehall, between her ladyship and Lady Dorchester, Tom Killigrew's daughter, whom the king delighted to honour, and in which that ill-favoured Esther got the better of our elderly Vashti. But her ladyship for ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... could issue only from bloody and dripping jaws. In a panic, as by a common impulse we turned and ran. Yet we did not run frankly as when the circus lion is loose, but in a shamefaced manner—an attempt at a retreat in good order—something between a walk and a run. At the end of a hundred yards we stopped. No dogs had fallen on us. Danger had not burst its kennel. We hallooed again, to rouse the trapper. At last, after a ...
— There's Pippins And Cheese To Come • Charles S. Brooks

... Natalie was by that time moving around freely; and they had begun to count the days to their ardently desired retreat from that unhappy valley. The question of food became more and more pressing—their journey would have to be spread over many slow stages; and he finally decided to drive Mabyn ...
— Two on the Trail - A Story of the Far Northwest • Hulbert Footner

... any thing at all, were Mrs. Tracy, vexed at her dishabille, and mortified at so cool a reception of, what she hoped, her still unsullied beauties; and Charles, poor fellow, who ran up to his studious retreat, and soothed his grief, as best he might, with philosophic fancies: it was so cold, so heartless, so unkind a greeting. Romantic youth! how should the father have ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... so heightened the anger of Dakianos that he conjured the genie to let him know the place of their retreat. ...
— Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers • Various

... my all-eager feet Seek out some whilom calm retreat, "Pip, pip!" resounds in every lane, "Pip, pip!" the hedges ring again, "Pip, pip!" the corn, "Pip, pip!" the rye, "Pip, pip!" the woods and meadows cry, As through the thirsty, fever'd day, The red-hot scorchers scorch their way. Peace is no ...
— Mr. Punch Awheel - The Humours of Motoring and Cycling • J. A. Hammerton

... as did Anne, who was too weary and indifferent to retreat, and Frank, who had taken another view of the ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the savages surrounded the little camp. They did not dream that a handful of men behind a barricade of wooden carts could cause them to retreat after killing the bravest of their warriors. For five hours bullets whistled back and forth over the heads of the men kneeling in the shelter of the carts. The Indians had begun the battle confident of victory, but as the time went on and ...
— Thirty Indian Legends • Margaret Bemister

... better for out-o'-door topics; Your jail is for travellers a charming retreat; They can take a day's rule for a trip to the Tropics, And sail round the world at ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... diminutive Arabian bedstead, hung with curtains of pink-and- white chintz. On the inside of the bed there was a narrow channel, about a foot wide, between it and the wall of the hut. Into this cramped retreat Viviette slid herself, and stood trembling ...
— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... western slope when we received the signal from Fort Wood to charge the lower line of works at the foot of Missionary Ridge. This we did easily, but the cross-fire from the second line midway up the Ridge was so galling that the position was untenable. One of two things must be done: retreat or carry the Ridge. The first alternative I do not think occurred to anyone, for they leaped the breastworks, and in spite of the enemy's utmost endeavors and natural obstructions, the second line in a few moments was ours. But not a moment did ...
— Doctor Jones' Picnic • S. E. Chapman

... excursions. At the place I have designated we are only two steps from Madame Charman's and near Tremorel's retreat; for the wretch has hired his rooms in the quarter ...
— The Mystery of Orcival • Emile Gaboriau

... chance, think of planting a gun yonder, I feel sure that notion will exclude all others. We shall open the door and retreat on Crown Point unmolested." ...
— Fort Amity • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... him on to his horse, and gained the open, accompanied by a guide, who led him to the castle of Roche-Foucauld, which he entered by night, and found in the great room Bertha de Rohan, who had arranged this retreat for him. But on removing the helmet of his rescuer, he recognised the son of Jehan, who expired upon the table, as by a final effort he kissed his mother, and saying in ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 3 • Honore de Balzac

... the wisdom thereof was made manifest, for with earliest dawn one of their scouts came running in with the news that the slave-hunters were approaching; that they were in great numbers, and mostly armed with rifles; that it was too late for retreat, in that a large detachment had already gained a position which was practically such ...
— The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford

... they are places of retreat or stronghold, where they defend themselves against the attack of an enemy, as some of them seemed not ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... the music stopped, the waltzing ceased, an a line of retreat was left open for Graham. He saw the Countess once more approaching, and availed himself of it; out of the noise and heat and crowd he fled, into the fresh open ...
— My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter

... impossible to tell of all the fun they had, and how Mary actually came so near laughing at some of the nonsense that she had to beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen to save ...
— The Story of the Big Front Door • Mary Finley Leonard

... sat as though petrified, amazement and fear written upon their pale faces, for there in the doorway, eyeing them intently, and with no thought of retreat, ...
— Black Bruin - The Biography of a Bear • Clarence Hawkes

... in this silent closing of all avenue of retreat that for a moment Madden was dismayed, then he struck out toward the schooner with ...
— The Cruise of the Dry Dock • T. S. Stribling

... the island was concluded, I found that a governorship of Heligoland was very far from being a tranquil retreat. The present Governor, it seems, had founded a new constitution, and was charged with having assumed despotic powers, and with having perpetrated various acts of inhumanity. Governor Wall himself appeared in the light of a philanthropist as compared with this military ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various

... shall have the advantage of a surprise. If so, I think that we may feel pretty confident that we shall, at any rate, in the first place, carry off Miss Greendale and her maid. The danger won't be in the attack, but in the retreat. That Obi fellow may raise the whole country against us. There is one thing—the population is scanty up here, and it won't be until we get down towards the lower ground that they will be able to muster strongly enough to be really formidable; but we may have to fight hard ...
— The Queen's Cup • G. A. Henty

... on this green and mossy seat, In my hours of sweet retreat; Thus I would my soul employ, With ...
— Harrison's Amusing Picture and Poetry Book • Unknown

... limited to keeping ourselves above that vast sheet of water throughout the day. Joe cannot fail to see us, and his eyes will be constantly on the lookout in that direction. Perhaps he will even manage to let us know the place of his retreat." ...
— Five Weeks in a Balloon • Jules Verne

... and, above all, the drawing of it back into place, which I instinctively felt would be the hardest act of the two, would be beyond the utmost fire or force conceivable in a dying man. No, even if he, as a member of the family, knew of this subterranean retreat, he could not have made use of it. I did not even accept the possibility sufficiently to approach the place again with this new inquiry in mind. Yet what a delight lay in the thought of a possible finding ...
— The Mayor's Wife • Anna Katharine Green

... the wood-pigeons with such a terrible clangour of their strong wings, and facing towards them, showed such a determination to fight to the last breath, that the peewits, who were never very celebrated for their courage, turned tail, and began to retreat. ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies

... escape for the unfortunate man. They closed in on him and roughly dragged him from his retreat straight aft to the quarter-deck, and there I heard ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes

... and whip; whilst thou wert in the womb, and hadst not as yet come forth therefrom upon the earth, thou wert crowned lord of the two lands, and the 'Atef' crown of R[a] was upon thy brow. The gods come unto thee bowing low to the ground, and they hold thee in fear; they retreat and depart when, they see thee with the terror of R[a], and the victory of thy Majesty is in their hearts. Life is with thee, and offerings of meat and drink follow thee, and that which is thy due is ...
— Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life • E. A. Wallis Budge

... that it was mainly his own fault that there was anything to retrieve, and the true occasion to recover his lost ground was offered him after his bloody repulse of the enemy at Malvern Hill, though he did not turn it to account. For his retreat we think he would deserve all credit, had he not been under the necessity of making it. It was conducted with great judgment and ability, and we do not love that partisan narrowness of mind that would grudge him the praise so ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell

... rested on their arms and prepared to renew the struggle at daylight. Hooker, in view of a possible defeat, directed his engineer officers to lay out a new and stronger line, to cover his bridges, to which he could retreat in ...
— Chancellorsville and Gettysburg - Campaigns of the Civil War - VI • Abner Doubleday

... were very famous for geometrical knowledge: and as all the flat part of their country was annually overflowed, it is reasonable to suppose that they made use of this science to determine their lands, and to make out their several claims, at the retreat of the waters. Many indeed have thought, that the confusion of property, which must for a while have prevailed, gave birth to practical [199]geometry, in order to remedy the evil: and in consequence of it, that charts and maps were first delineated in this country. These, we may imagine, did not ...
— A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume II. (of VI.) • Jacob Bryant

... at her benefactor with eyes that were dim with tears, as the carriage approached this delightful retreat. ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... dull, bloodshot eyes glared at him with a dumb, wondering fury; the large wet nostrils were so near that their first snort of inarticulate rage made him reel backwards as from a blow. The gully was only a narrow and short fissure or subsidence of the plain; a few paces more of retreat and he would be at its end, against an almost perpendicular bank fifteen feet high. If he attempted to climb its crumbling sides and fell, there would be those short but terrible horns waiting to impale him! It seemed too terrible, too cruel! He was so small beside this ...
— A Waif of the Plains • Bret Harte

... resented it by giving Johnson a "dig" in the ribs. Whereupon a fight ensued in earnest, and as Willard was too young and light to keep up the contest at close quarters, he dodged his adversary and covered his retreat by dropping chairs in front of Johnson's legs, which brought that young gentleman to the floor more than once, to his own intense disgust and Willard's great gratification. At length Johnson managed to corner his opponent, and then rubbed ...
— Sword and Pen - Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier • John Algernon Owens

... him incapable of estimating the immediate consequences of the change, and he remained on the spot where it was accomplished, until seeing the great black spider cautiously emerging from his retreat and coming toward him, he spread his glittering wings, and mounting over the tops of the minarets of Damascus, at length settled down among the flowery meadows that environ the city. Here, for a time, he was delighted with his change of being, ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 • Various

... without enthusiasm, from the temporary retreat of the men's writing-room, he sent up his card at last to Mr. Edgarton, and was duly informed that that gentleman and his daughter were mountain-climbing. In an absurd flare of disappointment then, he edged his way out through the prattling ...
— Little Eve Edgarton • Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

... reconnoitred the field, and practised her address so successfully, that in less than half an hour she was loaded with ermine and embroidery, and disposed to retreat with her burden, when her regards were solicited by a splendid bundle, which she descried at some distance lying on the ground. This was no other than an unhappy officer of hussars; who, after having the good fortune to take a Turkish standard, was desperately wounded in the thigh, and ...
— The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete • Tobias Smollett

... journey, I was not over wideawake; I was by no means the first to awake; in fact I believe I was the last. I had taken my coat and boot and slipper off, but there was no time to look for any of my apparel, and when I recovered my senses, I beat a hasty retreat. ...
— Adventures and Recollections • Bill o'th' Hoylus End

... could do no less, Pothinus, to secure the retreat of my own soldiers. I am accountable for every life among them. But you are free to go. So are all here, and in ...
— Caesar and Cleopatra • George Bernard Shaw

... with an interchange of the social grimace of cordiality. A few words of compassion for poor Lady Dunstane's invalided state covered Lady Wathin's retreat. ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... forces report enormous Soviet attack with new weapons! Retreat of key groups! All work units report to factories ...
— The Defenders • Philip K. Dick

... already "an infant bard," from what he calls "the splendour in retreat" of Raby Castle, to Durham School, and in his eighteenth year was admitted of Pembroke Hall, October 30, 1739. His biographer expressly states that his allowance from home was scanty, and that his chief dependence, until he derived an income from his college, was on the ...
— Gossip in a Library • Edmund Gosse

... victory of the musket over the pike, and the beginning of the long struggle between line and column. Tilly's ranks were ten deep, and the Swedes only three, so that every musketeer fired. The world now perceived that the tardy, patient soldier, who had seemed too cautious about his retreat to prepare his advance, was a mighty conqueror, full of invention and ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... confined to educating the children, but a retreat is afforded the parents, without putting them under ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 • Various

... here were three to two, and his friends were keeping the men at bay. Without a moment's hesitation, George rushed into the fray, and, setting to work with a will, quickly stretched one of the gipsies out, whereupon the others beat a hasty retreat. ...
— Under the Rebel's Reign • Charles Neufeld

... by a young person who waited upon the table at the hotel where he took his meals. One morning he said something to her which caused her to smile not unkindly, to somewhat coquettishly break a plate of toast over his upturned, serious, simple face, and to retreat to the kitchen. He followed her, and emerged a few moments later, covered with more toast and victory. That day week they were married by a justice of the peace, and returned to Poker Flat. I am aware ...
— The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales • Bret Harte

... relinquished his original vocation, and commenced the study of physic, with the view of obtaining an appointment as surgeon in the public service; but his sanguine hopes proved abortive, and, to complete his mortification, his wife left him in Edinburgh, and sought a retreat in the Highlands. He again procured some employment as a teacher of music; and about the year 1810, one of his expedients was to give lessons in drawing. He was a man of a fervent spirit, and possessed of talents, which, if they had been adequately cultivated, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel , Volume I. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... trembling and wet, the little boy handing up a couple of carpet-bags, and following him. No sooner had he done so, than three or four balls whizzed past the captain's head, causing him to retreat to the cabin. A few minutes intervened, and he returned to ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... precipitate and involuntary seat. In the anguish of the moment, a single word, of mere obscenity, escaped her lips. When the laughing bystanders, among whom was Erasmus, helped her to her feet, she beat a hasty retreat, crimson with shame. Nowadays ladies do not have such a vocabulary at ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith

... that he was leaving; for M. Latterman's office, like that of all other large operators, had several doors, without counting the one that leads to the police-court. But M. de Tregars gave him no time to effect this retreat. Stepping suddenly forward, ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau

... the Prince of 'Gustenberg said when he spoke in front of the troops? 'One thing is a shame,' said he, 'and that is to turn your back before retreat is called.' And now you know what is a ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... head of its master hidden in the clouds? nothing in the echoing footsteps of nations passing down its banks to their destiny? nothing in the solemn, unbroken silence brooding over the fountain whence sprang this marvellous river, to bear precious gifts to thousands and millions, and again retreat unknown? Is there no mystery in unsolved questions, no wonder in miracles, no awe ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... into the air, numerous waterfalls splashed with a cool, soothing sound over artificial rocks. Statues wrought by Greek sculptors stood on the terraces, shady walks offered a cool retreat during the heat of the day, the vine, the pomegranate, and the fig afforded refreshment to the palate as well as pleasure to the eye. Palm trees with their graceful foliage waved gently in the passing breezes. All the countries with which the Carthaginians ...
— The Young Carthaginian - A Story of The Times of Hannibal • G.A. Henty

... French advanced party, 350 strong, who had tried to retreat, also became lost in the wood, and, not knowing where the English were, in their wanderings again approached them. As they did so Lord Howe, who, with Major Putnam, and 200 rangers and scouts, was at the head of the principal ...
— With Wolfe in Canada - The Winning of a Continent • G. A. Henty

... banks, the scenery gradually changes. The fore-part of the mountain ranges subside into low hills, the mountains themselves retreat, and the nearer you approach Aldea do Pedro, the wider and more open becomes the valley. In the background alone are still visible splendid mountain ranges, from which rises a mountain higher than the rest, somewhat ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

... came when the hostile fleets met off the promontory of Actium. At its crisis Cleopatra, prematurely concluding that the battle was lost, of a sudden gave the signal for retreat and put out to sea with her fleet. This was the crucial moment. Antony, mastered by his love, forgot all else, and in a swift ship started in pursuit of her, abandoning his fleet and army to win or lose as fortune might decide. For him the world was nothing; the dark-browed Queen ...
— Famous Affinities of History, Vol 1-4, Complete - The Romance of Devotion • Lyndon Orr

... extraordinary event took place in a little town. By some mischance one of the great owls, called horned owls, had come from the neighboring woods into the barn of one of the townsfolk in the night-time, and when day broke did not dare to venture forth again from her retreat, for fear of the other birds, which raised a terrible outcry whenever she appeared. In the morning when the man-servant went into the barn to fetch some straw, he was so mightily alarmed at the sight of the owl sitting there in a corner, that he ran away and ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... of the remaining native soldier and bearing him away with them. With cessation of hostilities, we searched the top of the island for food and water. At one side of the tableland there was a break in its surface and a bench of some dozen acres lay perhaps twenty feet below our retreat. We cautiously worked our way down to this portion and there to our delight found a number of fan-shaped traveller's palms and monkey-cups full of sweet water, which with two wild sago palms we calculated would keep us alive a few days ...
— Tales of the Malayan Coast - From Penang to the Philippines • Rounsevelle Wildman

... to finish him off, the big negro, who had accompanied him to the front, instantly dragged back the 'marquis,' howling with rage and pain, behind the shelter of the mainmast; and then, picking up his revolver for him, the two of them blazed amongst us pretty securely from that retreat, without, however, doing any damage to our side. A bullet of mine, though, flattened the big negro's nose a little more than Nature had already done for him, and which did not improve his beauty, ...
— The Ghost Ship - A Mystery of the Sea • John C. Hutcheson

... and Dan went first to explore; the mate, with Alice and Walter, followed next; and Nub brought up the rear. It was agreed that, should any Indians or human habitations be seen, the doctor and Dan were to fall back on the rest of the party; when, as the safest course, they would all quickly retreat rather than run the risk of a collision. Dan was well adapted for the task he had undertaken. Active as a monkey, lithe as a snake, and possessed of so keen pair of eyes, he made his way among the bushes, looking carefully ahead before he exposed himself in any open space. The doctor kept at a short ...
— The South Sea Whaler • W.H.G. Kingston

... what he was according to the world, was taken for a proof of his humility, and a presumption that he was a person of birth. He spent the first part of his life in the deserts of the East; but, inflamed with an ardent zeal for the glory of God, he left his retreat to preach the gospel in the North. At first he came to Astures, now Stokeraw, situate above Vienna; but finding the people hardened in vice, he foretold the punishment God had prepared for them, and repaired to Comagenes, now Haynburg ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... unfettered the fountains, Brooks go tinkling with silvery feet; Hope's bright blossoms the valley greet; Weakly and sickly up the rough mountains Pale old Winter has made his retreat. Thence he launches, in sheer despite, Sleet and hail in impotent showers, O'er the green lawn as he takes his flight; But the sun will suffer no white, Everywhere waking the formative powers, Living ...
— Faust • Goethe

... a wonderfully short time daylight burst upon the world. As the blacks had failed to get into the house during the night, it was less likely that they would succeed during the day. They fired a parting volley, and then, to our great satisfaction, beat a rapid retreat. The search for Lucy and Tom was ...
— Paddy Finn • W. H. G. Kingston

... upon him. His change of attitude was so sudden and fiery that they recoiled a step. But it was only for a moment: they had gone too far to retreat; they divided, and Thibout attacked him on his left with uplifted cudgel, and Moinard on his right with a long glittering knife. The latter, to guard his head from the stone, whipped off his hat and held it before his head: ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... even to their ripest years, if such men may be said to attain any ripeness at all. But let us survey those whose understandings are of a more elevated and refined temper; how empty do they soon find the world of enjoyments worth their desire or attaining! How soon do they retreat to solitude and contemplation, to gardening and planting, and such rural amusements, where their trees and they enjoy the air and the sun in common, and both vegetate with very little difference ...
— The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great • Henry Fielding

... their Presidents a slave merchant, carrying on his speculations in public view—these United States have just ended their career, they have entered the domain of history, their disappearance has been verified by the retreat of ...
— The Uprising of a Great People • Count Agenor de Gasparin

... confide in me, for I will endeavor to forget that I ever called you wife, and will treat you with the reverential tenderness due to a dear sister. When I once have seen you safely lodged in a secure retreat, I will leave you there, never to ...
— The Lost Lady of Lone • E.D.E.N. Southworth

... abdicated the throne of France on the 24th of February, rather than come into armed collision with his subjects; and, two days after, the Republic was officially proclaimed at the Hotel de Ville. Louis Philippe and his family took refuge in England—the usual retreat of persecuted Frenchmen; and nine months later, Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, who had also been a refugee in England, returned to France, and on the 20th of December was proclaimed President ...
— Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist • Samuel Smiles

... escaped her notice; since the truth, as she observed, was too often disguised from princes by the persons about them, through motives of private interest: and thus, with the customary assurances of her loving care over her loyal subjects, she skilfully accomplished her retreat from a contest in which she judged perseverance to be dangerous and final success at best uncertain. In her farewell speech, however, at the close of the session, she could not refrain from observing, ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... the 19th Irvin Cobb, Will Irwin, Arno Dosch, and I were caught between the Belgian and German lines in Louvain; our retreat to Brussels was cut, and for three days, while the vast German army moved through the city, we were detained. Then, the army having passed, we were allowed to go back ...
— The Lost Road • Richard Harding Davis

... as his friends declared, much inclined to be a missionary himself, but that the force of habit retained him in Germany and with the firm. Anton remarked with pleasure the courtesy and good feeling that prevailed. Being tired, he soon made his retreat; and having contradicted no one, and been friendly to all, he ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... the box. The heat of the day was almost insupportable. Not a breath of air could penetrate the closely-packed apartment; and the heat, as of a furnace, glowed in the room. Scarcely had the royal family got into this frail retreat, when the noise without informed them that their friends were falling before the daggers of assassins, and the greatest alarm was felt lest the doors should be driven in by the merciless mob. In this awful hour, the king appeared as calm, serene, ...
— Maria Antoinette - Makers of History • John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

... time. Whenever I have come across an awful animal in the forest and I know it has seen me I take Jerome's advice, and instead of relying on the power of the human eye rely upon that of the human leg, and effect a masterly retreat in the face of the enemy. If I know it has not seen me I sink in my tracks and keep an eye on it, hoping that it will go away soon. Thus I once came upon a leopard. I had got caught in a tornado in a dense forest. The massive, mighty trees were waving like a wheat-field in an autumn ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley

... of his foolhardiness and rashness, and that he had not considered or foreseen the dangerous and perhaps dishonorable consequences. However, as he had gone so far, he considered that it would be disgraceful and cowardly to retreat now. He was also desirous of pursuing to the end this adventure which he had begun with so much boldness and daring. He drew his sword, and with considerable strength breaking it in pieces, he threw them at the feet of ...
— The Merchant of Berlin - An Historical Novel • L. Muhlbach

... his efforts for the academic chair failed, and, finally, he was compelled to become a private teacher, an office the sacredness of which he profoundly realized. In his leisure hours he now gave himself up to deeper study of nature, literature, and man. It was in these few years of quiet retreat that he wrote the poems contained in the first edition of his works, 1859-60, which, laden with all the poet's longing to be heard, were little heeded in the first great shock of war. Indeed, in such a storm, what shelter could a ...
— Poems of Henry Timrod • Henry Timrod

... and indefatigable moss-troopers, indeed, these morasses were well known, and sometimes afforded a retreat. They often rode down the glen—called at this tower—asked and received hospitality—but still with a sort of reserve on the part of its more peaceful inhabitants, who entertained them as a party of North-American Indians might be received by a new European settler, as much out ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... a dozen Know Nothings, we know one member of the Order they will not affright into silence. For their cowardly assaults and their officious intermeddlings they may bare their backs to the lash. We will be with them to the bitter end, and will only forsake them in the Gethsemane of their retreat! ...
— Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism, and Bogus Democracy in the Light of Reason, History, and Scripture; • William Gannaway Brownlow

... the terms which are most appropriate fall into desuetude. One day, Gresset, in a discourse at the Academy, dares utter four or five of these,[3215] relating, I believe, to carriages and head-dresses, whereupon murmurs at once burst forth. During his long retreat he had become provincial and lost the touch.—By degrees, discourses are composed of "general expressions" only. These are even employed, in accordance with Buffon's precept, to designate concrete objects. They are more in conformity with the polished courtesy which ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... me whom I love, I would not then exchange with Jove: Ah! might I clasp her once, and drain Her lips as thirsty flowers drink rain! With death to meet, his welcome greet, from life retreat, I were full fain! Heigho! full fain, I were full fain, Could I such joy, such wealth of ...
— Wine, Women, and Song - Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse • Various



Words linked to "Retreat" :   sanctum sanctorum, locomote, travel, advance, back out, pullout, pleasance, back down, cocoon, draw back, back off, sign, war machine, armed forces, back up, beat a retreat, nook, withdrawal, fallback, area, move, sanctum, Camp David, bugle call, armed services, back away, fall back, disengagement, nest, go, ashram, country, military machine, retire, pull in one's horns, signal, military, signaling



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