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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



... swoon of Imogen, 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 me along, ...
— Endymion - A Poetic Romance • John Keats

... on you my sovereign behest to furbish up your lungs and other vocal organs, as they will be wanted on ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... changes in the laws, and that an obedient House of Commons should implicitly obey that leader in authorising all changes proposed by him;—but according to Barrington Erle, such changes should be numerous and of great importance, and would, if duly passed into law at his lord's behest, gradually produce such a Whig Utopia in England as has never yet been seen on the face of the earth. Now, according to Mr. Fitzgibbon, the present Utopia would be good enough,—if only he himself might be once more put into possession of a certain semi-political ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope

... of the monastery by the Normans, it was never rebuilt; yet its sanctity is not wholly lost. At the behest of Clotilda, the waters of the fountain of Andelys were changed into wine for the relief of the weary labourer, and the tutelary saint is ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner

... doubt he might have gone to Durton, and no doubt she would have gone to him if asked. She would have flown to him at Dresden, or to Jerusalem, at a word spoken by him. Absence had made him so precious to her, that she would have obeyed the slightest behest with joy as long as the order given were to bring them once more together. But of this Lady Grant was not aware, and, had she been so, the sense of what was ...
— Kept in the Dark • Anthony Trollope

... behest they also wound them round and round with ropes, before they departed, and gave them some very good advice upon the matter of range rules and the herding of sheep, particularly of ...
— Flying U Ranch • B. M. Bower

... are sent on wolves to take The vengeance now condign: In turn the same abuse they make Of this behest divine. ...
— A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine

... elections, Bonaparte himself appointed, not only the five Directors and the Ministers whom they were to control, but even the 180 legislators, both Ancients and Juniors. In this strange fashion did democracy descend on Italy, not mainly as the work of the people, but at the behest of a great organizing genius. It is only fair to add that he summoned to the work of civic reconstruction many of the best intellects of Italy. He appointed a noble, Serbelloni, to be the first President of the Cisalpine Republic, and a scion of the august House of the Visconti was ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... Senate and House of Representatives, who have sanctioned this bill by more than a two-thirds majority, will, according to the Constitution, exercise their privilege and power, and let the bill become a law of the land, according to the high behest ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... thy behest to me Was that all sloth I should eschew and flee, And keep good Watch until the Night was done: Now must my Song and Service pass for none? For soon it will ...
— The Certain Hour • James Branch Cabell

... king went to sleep. And Kynon the son of Clydno asked Kay for that which Arthur had promised them. "I too will have the good tale which he promised me," said Kay. "Nay," answered Kynon; "fairer will it be for thee to fulfil Arthur's behest in the first place, and then we will tell thee the best tale that we know." So Kay went to the kitchen and to the mead-cellar, and returned, bearing a flagon of mead, and a golden goblet, and a handful of skewers, upon which were broiled slices of meat. They ate the collops, and began to ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)

... terrorizing and burning, but catching no horse-thieves. It is impossible through the obscurity that shrouds the grim events of that autumn to determine to what extent they were honestly in pursuit of lawbreakers or were merely endeavoring, at the behest of some of the great cattle-owners, to drive the small stockmen out of the country. Their motives were possibly mixed. The small ranchers were notoriously not always what they seemed. Most of the horse-thieves posed as "nesters," hiding in underground stables by day ...
— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn

... muffled—then the Hero spoke. "Generous and brave! when God himself is' here, Why shake at shadows in your mid career? He can suspend the Jaws himself design'd, He walks the waters, and the winged wind; [Footnote 3] Himself your guide! and yours the high behest To lift your voice, and bid a world be blest! And can you shrink? [Footnote 4] to you, to you consign'd The glorious privilege to serve mankind! Oh had I perish'd, when my failing frame [Footnote 5] ...
— Poems • Samuel Rogers

... on Rhine's broad breast Glance drowsy stars which long to rest. No beams are twinkling in the east. There is a voice upon the flood, The stern still call of blood for blood; 'Tis time we listen the behest. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13, - Issue 373, Supplementary Number • Various

... the major. "I don't propose to stay out here and cool my heels in front of my sister's house at the behest of a stranger." ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... the Prophets is the word of Almighty Allah that saith[FN75] 'And We have already sent Apostles before thee: of some We have told thee, and of others We have told thee naught: yet no Apostle had the power to come with a sign unless by the leave of Allah. But when Allah's behest cometh, everything shall be decided with truth; and then perish they who entreated it as a vain thing'; and the verset which speaketh of the Folk and the Fire is the word of Almighty Allah which saith[FN76] 'O out Lord! ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... "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

... his lips writhing clear of his teeth as he passed the mate. For the first time there was a whimper in his throat; but it was not the whimper of fear, nor of pain, but of outrage, and of desire to continue the battle which he struggled to control at Skipper's behest. ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London

... a moment about summoning the president of the bank from his private office at the behest of so small a child, so small that even on tiptoe her eyes could barely peer into the window of his cage. But they were entreating eyes, so big and brown and sure of their appeal that he decided ...
— Georgina of the Rainbows • Annie Fellows Johnston

... the fight itself enough that man must look to some behest? Wherein does Failure miss Success if all engaged but do their best? Where does the Victor's cry come in for wreath of fame or laureled brow If one he vanquished fought as well as weaker ...
— It Can Be Done - Poems of Inspiration • Joseph Morris

... physically mutilated? Is it that the child is haled out of nothingness to be inoculated, perhaps, with germs of disease in the first instance and then half nourished for nine months in a body which has been robbed of its vitality by the mutilation and torture to which it has been subjected at the behest of fashion? ...
— Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 2, April 1906 - Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature • Various

... involved as the cause of the Ghost's thus interfering?—That he too sees what difficulties must encompass the carrying out of his behest, and what absolute secrecy is ...
— The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - A Study with the Text of the Folio of 1623 • George MacDonald

... to moulder away to wormy corruption,—had been the one fantastic dread of the sturdy old pagan's life. And he had taken advantage of Svensen's devotion and obedience to impress on him the paramount importance of his solitary behest. ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... dwarf was gone, Charming kicked off his shoes and stepped into the magic boots; then he seized the sword and the cloak and darted off on his lady's behest. He had barely gone a hundred paces before a sudden idea came to him, and ...
— Happy Days • Alan Alexander Milne

... for religious 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 Myths of the New World - A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America • Daniel G. Brinton

... fast vanishing through the awakening public conscience. And his career will end, I assure you, despite the fact that you, Mr. Magee, have seen fit to send our evidence scurrying through the night at the behest of a chit of a girl. I beg your pardon—I shall continue. Young Drayton, the new county prosecutor, was several years back a favorite pupil of mine. After he left law school he fell under the spell of the picturesque ...
— Seven Keys to Baldpate • Earl Derr Biggers

... 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 ...
— Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days • Emily Hickey

... in favour of the Army 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 of ...
— German Problems and Personalities • Charles Sarolea

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

... bird or a shaft, or any other swift thing, she was gone from the room, How she got the house-door open I cannot tell; probably it might be ajar; perhaps Warren was in the way and obeyed her behest, which would be impetuous enough. I—watching calmly from the window— saw her, in her black frock and tiny braided apron (to pinafores she had an antipathy), dart half the length of the street; and, as I was on the point of ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... battlefields attest, a hundred victories show, How well at liberty's behest they ...
— Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886 • Various

... on her correspondence on summer-days, rather than to write within palace walls, because she, whose life has been pure and candid as the day, has always loved dearly the open air of heaven. In the pavilion where the first English artists of the time strove to do their Prince's behest, working sometimes from eight in the morning to six or seven in the evening, her Majesty and the Prince delighted to watch Maclise put in Sabrina releasing the Lady from the enchanted chair, and Leslie make Comus offering the cup ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1. • Sarah Tytler

... Queene of Carthage, wert thou vgly blacke, AEneas could not choose but hold thee deare, Yet must he not gainsay the Gods behest. ...
— The Tragedy of Dido Queene of Carthage • Christopher Marlowe

... the coroner surprised and gratified the lawyer. Evidently here was a conscientious official who was not to be precipitated into hasty action at the behest of the police. ...
— The Substitute Prisoner • Max Marcin

... first place, in a poor state of health, and was, in the second, engaged in making preparations for the reception of any arrivals from Yan Ch'un, so that she, at an early hour, sent word that it was impossible for her to leave the house. Yet when she received old lady Chia's behest, she smiled and exclaimed: "Are her spirits still so buoyant!" and transmitted the message into the garden that any, who had any wish to avail themselves of the opportunity, were at liberty to go on the first, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin

... physician, whose poems Charisi praised as the "fount of poesy." The plot of his "Gift," a satire on women, is as follows:[52] His dying father exacts from Serach, the hero of the romance, a promise never to marry, women in his sight being the cause of all the evil in the world. Curious as the behest is, it is still more curious that Serach uncomplainingly complies, and most curious of all, that he finds three companions willing to retire with him to a distant island, whence their propaganda for celibacy is to proceed. Scarcely has the news of their arrival spread, when a mass meeting of ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles

... Massachusetts in competition with the French islands, clamored for relief, the famous Molasses Act of 1733 was passed, laying prohibitive duties upon the importation of sugar, molasses, and rum into the continental colonies. And in 1750, at the behest of the woolen and iron interests, rapidly growing industries in New England and Pennsylvania were restricted in order that the English landowner and English woolen and iron manufacturers might find in America the markets which they ...
— Beginnings of the American People • Carl Lotus Becker

... 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 saddest sights of that woful day; and no man clasped the hands of ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois

... and actresses have to do more disagreeable and dangerous "stunts" than merely falling into a muddy stream. The demand of the public for realism often goes to extremes, and more than once performers have risked their lives at the behest ...
— The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms - Or Lost in the Wilds of Florida • Laura Lee Hope

... 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 feeling drew Fabio to gaze once more ...
— A Reckless Character - And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... 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 ...
— Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine • Lewis Spence

... the trial, inhibiting all from aiding their designs. The trial collapsed, and the gentlemen who had ordered it, baffled and disgusted, moved on to New Hampshire, there also to be balked by a decree of the Massachusetts Governor and Council forbidding the towns so much as to meet at their behest. ...
— History of the United States, Vol. I (of VI) • E. Benjamin Andrews

... Mountchessington Lawk—the name of my respected mother-in-law—had described our imaginary bower, and her imaginary apartment adjoining, until she had worked herself into a fever of imaginary happiness, I mildly communicated the behest of my departed parent. ...
— Trifles for the Christmas Holidays • H. S. Armstrong

... sorrow of soul; words which probably you will not believe. Which only Fate can compel you to believe, one day, if they are true words:—you think, probably, they are not? Me at least, or interest of mine, they do not regard. I speak them from the fulness of my heart, and on behest of friendship and conviction alone; having the honor at this moment to bid you and your Republic a very long farewell. Good-morning, for the last time!" and so EXIT: to Rome (had been Cardinal once); ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... considered the whole thing a piece of presumption upon the part of his extraordinary acquaintance. Why should he run about London at the behest of ...
— The Sins of Severac Bablon • Sax Rohmer

... his temper 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 chafed at ...
— The Age of Innocence • Edith Wharton

... his utmost to comply with the Papal behest. An archbishopric and two bishoprics were founded, and the 'Golden Bull' was promulgated, in which it was announced that Joannitz intended to receive his crown and investiture at the hands of the Universal Priest, Innocent III., and that certain ecclesiastical functionaries ...
— Roumania Past and Present • James Samuelson

... obeyed his wife's behest, and then he turned with a relieved air to his old friend Phillis. She was the clever one; and though some people called her quiet, that was because they did not draw her out, or she had no sympathy with them. He had always found her decidedly amusing and ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey

... moments his manner was not without a certain deference. His respect for him was unbounded, and his pride in their intimacy was boyishly whole-hearted. There was no sacrifice great or small that he would not willingly have offered at Monck's behest. ...
— The Lamp in the Desert • Ethel M. Dell

... 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 ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge

... obey this behest, and the Stadtholder entered the hall. Behind him were ranged the twelve pages in their glittering clothes, then followed the officers of the household in splendid uniforms. Again the trumpets of the musicians sent forth their animating peals, and, ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach

... goodness of God may rule on earth as in heaven, the Angels of Destruction are assigned a place at the far end of the heavens, from which they may never stir, while the Angels of Mercy encircle the Throne of God, at His behest.[9] ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... Night, I summon ye, By three by four, by four by five, Come ye now dead that were alive, Come now I bid ye From grave-clods rid ye, Come! From South and North, I bid ye forth, From East, from West, At my behest— Come! Come great, come small, Come one, come all, Heed ye my call, List to my call, I say, From pitchy gloom Of mouldered tomb Here find ye room For sport and holiday. Come grisly ghosts and goblins pale, Come spirits black and grey, ...
— The Geste of Duke Jocelyn • Jeffery Farnol

... the Gods!—nor he Knows he answers their behest; Feels the might of their decree In the ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford

... true and beyond question, but 'twas because I reverenced the excellency of thy majesty, lest thou mightest think me a meddler. If therefore thou bid thy servant put thee in mind of these things for the future, I shall obey thy behest.' 'Yea,' said the king, 'not every day only, but every hour, renew in me the remembrance thereof: for it behoveth us not to turn our mind inattentively to these things, but ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus

... dress which should be in form and line all that could be desired. To do it out of unbroken yards of material, without necessity for piecing and patching, was a delightful novelty. To accomplish it in three days was only a matter of working at top speed, with fingers which flew at the behest of a brain which also worked ...
— Under the Country Sky • Grace S. Richmond

... heard thy funeral knell. Thou didst go when thou wast young; Scarcely hadst thou oped thine eyes To the world, and it had flung Its bright sunshine from the skies, Ere thy Maker called for thee, Thou obeyed his high behest; Then I mourned, yet knew thou 'dst be Throned on high among the blest. Gently thou didst fold thy wing, Gently thou didst sink in sleep; Birds their evening songs did sing, And the evening shades did creep Through ...
— Town and Country, or, Life at Home and Abroad • John S. Adams

... thickens with foliage the glade, And lures to the woodland the poet and maid. Sweet as "sack," gentle bird, is thy beautiful voice, In thy accents the lover must ever rejoice: Oh! tell me at once, in thy musical lay, Where tarries the girl whose behest ...
— The Poetry of Wales • John Jenkins

... knew it not; but now error 532:30 demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the five senses. The first impression material man had of 533:1 himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over 533:3 all the earth? No! This had never been ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy

... hymeneal rites, And boasted oft the freedom of their fate: Nor 'vailed, as they opined, its best delights Those ills to balance that on wedlock wait; And often would they tell of henpecked fool Snubbed by the hard behest of sour-eyed dame. And vowed no tongue-armed woman's freakish rule Their mirth should quail, or damp their generous flame: Then pledged their hands, and tossed their bumpers o'er, And Io! Bacchus! sung, ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... that I have returned, and feel shame to stand thus aimless in mid-street. So the voices of men, the murmur of the streets, the song of birds, and the trusty watchdogs all are silent; and I alone dread the slumbers of my couch and follow thy behest, great god of love. ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

... And the oracle gave them one of its often cruel and always uncertain answers; saying that if they would be successful a virgin of the house of AEpytus must die for her country. To fulfil this cruel behest Aristodemus, who was of that ancient house, killed his daughter with his own hand,—much as Agamemnon had sacrificed his daughter before sailing ...
— Historic Tales, vol 10 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... awoke, and looked out of the window, the mountain had disappeared. The young man hastened full of joy to the king, and told him that his behest was fulfilled, and, whether the king liked it or not, he had to keep to his word, and let his ...
— Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm • Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

... the Ethiopians to Hellas, sees the lone sailor with his little craft from the heights of the mountain called Solyma; at once the God's wrath is roused and he talks to himself, "shaking his head." The clouds, the winds, the ocean obeyed his behest, and fell upon the voyager in a furious tempest. A huge billow whirled the raft around and threw Ulysses off into the deep; with difficulty be regained his place, ...
— Homer's Odyssey - A Commentary • Denton J. Snider

... all indifferently. The disconsolate birds again begin to build their nest, and at the end of February or the beginning of March the Indians repeat their robbery. The saddened bird, forced to build its shelter at the behest of nature in the multiplication of the species repeats its anxious labors. Either because there is not enough material for so many labors, or because the season has passed in their periods, the bird ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXI, 1624 • Various

... 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 brave, ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott

... St. Katharine otherwise than the holy and beneficent career that she had always longed for—worshipping in the fair church, and going forth from thence 'into the streets and lanes of the city,' to fulfil Queen Philippa's pious behest, to seek out the suffering and the ignorant, and to tend and instruct them. The tall form and beautiful countenance of Sister Clare were loved and reverenced as those of an angel messenger among the high houses and courts that closed in on the banks of the Thames; and while Luxemburgs ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge

... a Mother's breast, Though colored be her skin! And though at Slavery's foul behest, She must not ...
— The Liberty Minstrel • George W. Clark

... Alexander 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 ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot

... chanted, All his spells he sang in order, At the will of the Creator, At behest of the Almighty, How himself the air he fashioned, And from air the water parted, And the earth was formed from water, And from ...
— Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) - The Land of the Heroes • Anonymous

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

... throne fell in love with the princess and resolved to marry her. He sent his chamberlain to ask of her father his daughter in marriage according to true etiquette. The father agreed to the prince's proposal, with the condition that the Prince should obey her behest in one thing, which was to come ...
— Japanese Fairy World - Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan • William Elliot Griffis

... 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 eve without ...
— Heart Utterances at Various Periods of a Chequered Life. • Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney

... principles of 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 so far as they bear the imprimatur ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... Nay, nay, Brangaene, nay I will not wait. 'Twas not for this 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 Hard by Tintagel's walls, a ship in which Men live, and ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... confraternities of mendicants and of Jesus—the Jesuits. Unknown, and in silence, they were domiciliated in courts and in families, throughout all nations; and some roamed as itinerants. The will of their general, on their unconditional subserviency to his behest, seemed to create an almost omnipresent power to be controlled by Rome alone. Has not the exercise of it been exemplified in the inquisition? Was it not felt in the massacre of St. Bartholomew? I will ...
— Mysticism and its Results - Being an Inquiry into the Uses and Abuses of Secrecy • John Delafield

... independence; hireling service sacrifices self-respect as well as principle; a public officer who makes his office tributary to private speculation in which he is interested is mercenary; if he receives a stipulated recompense for administering his office at the behest of some leader, faction, corporation, or the like, he is both hireling and venal; if he gives essential advantages for pay, without subjecting himself to any direct domination, his course is venal, but not hireling. Compare ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald

... eye He sought what might his Country's welfare aid, And the rich flocks of Spain, at his behest Spread their proud fleeces o'er our verdant glade, And Scotia's herds, as on their native shore Our never-failing streams, and pastures ...
— Man of Uz, and Other Poems • Lydia Howard Sigourney

... that widely the work was a-banning To kindreds a many the Middle-garth over To fret o'er that folk-stead. So befell to him timely Right soon among men that made was it yarely The most of hall-houses, and Hart its name shap'd he, Who wielded his word full widely around. His behest he belied not; it was he dealt the rings, 80 The wealth at the high-tide. Then up rose the hall-house, High up and horn-gabled. Hot surges it bided Of fire-flame the loathly, nor long was it thenceforth Ere sorely the edge-hate 'twixt Son and Wife's Father After the slaughter-strife there should ...
— The Tale of Beowulf - Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats • Anonymous

... flight from this struggle within him. Yet, under the existing circumstances, there could be no question of his doing this. He had only himself to blame for having given her the right to count upon his friendship; and it was a behest of chivalry to deserve her confidence. Incapable of tearing himself from the place, where he knew his loved one remained, Heideck must have stayed a quarter of an hour rooted to the spot, and just when he had ...
— The Coming Conquest of England • August Niemann

... Channel at full speed and at night were abreast of the Scilly lights, driving towards the Bay of Biscay in the teeth of an Equinoctial gale. At the behest of one girl eighty men had to endure the discomfort of a storm at sea, and a great steel ship, straining and quivering, was flung into the perilous night. It seemed a misuse of power that, at a woman's whim, so many lives and so noble and costly a ...
— Love, The Fiddler • Lloyd Osbourne

... hold converse?" began the Archbishop, "I am here at the behest of the Bernstein call to parley, but I see none, of that name on the wall ...
— The Strong Arm • Robert Barr

... architecture and decoration are of a faded prettiness which cannot bear comparison with the fresh rougeing, equally Moorish, of the Alcazar at Seville. Was this indeed the place where the Abencerrages were brought in from supper one by one and beheaded into the fountain at the behest of their royal host? Was it here that the haughty Don Juan de Vera, coming to demand for the Catholic kings the arrears of tribute due them from the Moor, "paused to regard its celebrated fountain" and "fell into discourse with the Moorish courtiers on ...
— Familiar Spanish Travels • W. D. Howells

... into London. Edward IV preferred to have his brother Clarence, though already under sentence of death, privately killed. But the most atrocious murder of all was that of the two infant sons of Edward IV himself; they were both murdered at once, as was fully believed, at the behest of their uncle Richard III, who had put himself in possession of the throne. I know not whether the actual character of Richard answered to that type of inborn wickedness which commits crime because it wills it as crime, such as following the hints of the Chronicle[71] a great poet ...
— A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) • Leopold von Ranke

... heart is my only charm, But my good broadsword is keen, And love for the princess nerves my arm With the strength of ten, I ween. Come weal, come woe, no knight can fail Who goes at Love's behest. Long ere one moon shall wax and wane, I shall be back from my quest. I have only to find the South Wind's flute. In the Land of Summer it lies. It can awaken the echoes mute, With answering replies. And it can summon the fairy ...
— The Little Colonel's Hero • Annie Fellows Johnston

... the monks his treasures, Gave them all with this behest: They should feed the birds at noontide Daily on his ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... 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

... red as she is yellow, cousin," whispered back Robin, with smiling face. "I'll do your behest, and attend you in this pleasance to-night at twelve o' th' clock. My squire can ...
— Robin Hood • Paul Creswick

... 'friend of humanity;' nay, that such professional 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, and balanced sufficiently ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... my Lord, Let me beseech you on my bended knee, For your own sake—for Poland's—and for his, Who, looking up for counsel to the skies, Did what he did under authority To which the kings of earth themselves are subject, And whose behest not only he that suffers, But he that executes, not comprehends, But only He that ...
— Life Is A Dream • Pedro Calderon de la Barca

... 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 ...
— The Young Lady's Equestrian Manual • Anonymous

... indignation against the rich by hunting and stoning defenceless women and children; torturing and murdering men whose only offence was the color God gave them, or men wearing the self-same uniform as that which they declared was to be thrust upon them at the behest of ...
— What Answer? • Anna E. Dickinson

... though he'd been through a severe drubbing. He might have been sufficiently disheartened to shatter his castle in the air had he not seen Lavinia's big sorrowful eyes fixed upon him from the kitchen. He dared not disobey her mother's behest not to speak to her so he tried to smile encouragingly, and to intimate by his expression that all was going well. Whether he succeeded in so doing he was by no ...
— Madame Flirt - A Romance of 'The Beggar's Opera' • Charles E. Pearce

... Secretary was 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 when ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine

... from out the castle drew, But Marmion stopped to bid adieu: "Though something I might 'plain," he said, "Of cold respect to stranger guest, Sent hither by your king's behest, While in Tantallon's towers I staid; Part we in friendship from your land, And, noble Earl, receive my hand." But Douglas round him drew his cloak, Folded his arms, and thus he spoke: "My manors, halls, and ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck

... their remonstrances and entreaties—what was life in his eyes compared with gold? When they found that no human sympathy could be expected from the father, the mother and brother determined to use their own exertions to obey the behest of the physician. Early and late the former worked at her needle, the good doctor finding her as much employment as he could; while Richard, abandoning the study of his art, painted valentines, card-racks, and fancy articles for the stationers, and sought eagerly for every ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 • Various

... 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 no ...
— The Count's Millions - Volume 1 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... martyr was unbelievable,—and the way she said it! Not even Pat Murphy, the coal-wagon driver, with all his years of practice, could have said it with greater distinctness,—not even Pat who possessed the masculine right to amplify the behest with expletives not supposed to be uttered except in the presence of his ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon

... to what, 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, flows in a torrent or is reduced to a mere thread, and collects to flash in lightnings, ...
— Louis Lambert • Honore de Balzac

... earlier than usual in expectation of Mr. 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

... that the essence of this creed, in times like ours, was right and not wrong. That, however the ground and form of it might change, essentially it was the monition of his natal genius to this as it is to every brave man; the behest of all his clear insight into this Universe, the message of Heaven through him, which he could not suppress, but was inspired and compelled to utter in this world by such methods as he had. There for him lay the first ...
— The Life of John Sterling • Thomas Carlyle

... that a cart might be sent for her, so that she might be carried to the union workhouse at Kanturk. But his efforts in her service were of little avail. People then did not think much of a dying woman, and were in no special hurry to obey Herbert's behest. ...
— Castle Richmond • Anthony Trollope

... ended at the behest of the nurse, and Mr. World was asked if he wished to enter the secret departments underground. This question aroused his curiosity and led to a lengthy conversation after which he expressed a desire to visit ...
— Mr. World and Miss Church-Member • W. S. Harris

... restriction, made obviously at the behest of some deep passion, was to make him suddenly sinister. They gazed at him as though he had revealed that he carried arms. But Ellen remembered ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West

... heaven-controlled, I feel within my aged breast A power that can not be repressed. It prompts my voice, it swells my veins, It burns, it maddens, it constrains! De Bruce, thy sacrilegious blow Hath at God's altar slain thy foe; O'ermastered, yet by high behest, I bless thee, and thou shalt be blest!" He spoke, and o'er the astonished throng Was silence, awful, deep and long. Again that light has fired his eye, Again his form swells bold and high, The broken voice of age is gone, 'Tis vigorous manhood's lofty tone ...
— Ten Great Events in History • James Johonnot

... 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 did not look back upon that California springtime as the episode of ...
— Rezanov • Gertrude Atherton

... anxiously seized his hand, crying, "Such rash presumption ill accords with the attitude of devoted service." "This act of mine," replied he, "is not prompted by presumption, but by unstinted obedience, and desire to fulfil my Master's behest. After giving effect to the command of His Holiness, I will assuredly pour forth my life ...
— The Reconciliation of Races and Religions • Thomas Kelly Cheyne

... mutuality of interests that would be theirs, a lesson of supreme worth to a conventional world. They arranged philanthropic schemes for the betterment of conditions for the little brothers and sisters who gained a sustenance by toil at their behest. But, most of all, they talked those divine absurdities that are the privilege of all true lovers. The husband bewailed the incredible stupidity that had led him into neglect of the most adorable being in the universe; the wife mourned over the stern necessity that ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan

... free: their servile lives were spent in grovelling and cringing and toiling and running about like little dogs at the behest of their numerous masters. And as for the benefits of science and civilization, their only share was to work and help to make them, and then to watch other men enjoy them. And all the time they were ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell

... if you have a mind; and bid her ride within the week to the wedding; and stay not for the Lord Bigod, for he is more maid than man, and will not willingly let his daughter go; but will fear to keep her from my behest." ...
— Paul the Minstrel and Other Stories - Reprinted from The Hill of Trouble and The Isles of Sunset • Arthur Christopher Benson

... stare in speechless amazement. He made no move to obey the behest to "help himself," whereupon Count Vavel himself thrust his hands into the chest, lifted what he could hold between them of gold and silver, and filled the vice-palatine's hat, which that worthy was holding ...
— The Nameless Castle • Maurus Jokai

... me only as a sensuous chord of color, but in the dark corner consecrated to the worship of our God, my soul expanded, as if a holy finger touched it, and I fell on my knees, and prayed? Each of us comes into this world dowered with the behest to make desperate war against that indissoluble 'Triple Alliance, the World, the Flesh and the Devil,' and needing all the auxiliaries possible, I resort to conscription wherever I can recruit. Since I am two thousand years too young to set up a statue ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... White Bear with the full intention of carrying out his grandmother's behest. But not just now. He must do it, of course, before he saw her again. Lady Oxford might take it into her head to pay a visit to Lady Louvaine, in which case it would surely be discovered if the question had ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt

... Indian sachem who, at the behest of a white girl, kills her betrayer, and brings his scalp to her. In the storm of anguished remorse awakened by the sight of the bloody trophy, the woman murders Megone in his sleep, and is henceforth banned by the church, driven by conscience, ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... have thy fill. If the beauty of the Princess has kindled thy lust, thou need'st but beckon one of her sire's officers (who, although invisible, always surround her) and they will immediately attend thy behest. There are here fair mansions, fine gardens, full orchards, shady groves fit for every secret intrigue, or to trap birds or a white rabbit or twain; clear streams, most pleasant to fish in; rich, boundless plains, whereon to hunt the hare and fox. Along the street we could see them playing interludes, ...
— The Visions of the Sleeping Bard • Ellis Wynne

... are said to overcome the man at whose behest they rise, so this sweet air, and the gush of reminiscence it awakened, overpowered him who had evoked them; Alfred put his Hand unconsciously to his swelling heart, cast one look of anguish at Julia, and hurried away half choked. Nobody but ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... visiting his country house (which he declared to lie at a distance of not more than fifteen versts from the boundaries of the town); and in return Chichikov averred (with an exceedingly affable bow and a most sincere handshake) that he was prepared not only to fulfil his friend's behest, but also to look upon the fulfilling of it as a sacred duty. In the same way Sobakevitch said to him laconically: "And do you pay ME a visit," and then proceeded to shuffle a pair of boots of such dimensions that to find a pair to correspond with them would ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... reconnoitering parties advancing, wherein was noted an unusually large proportion of officers. For the first time the German officers were seen to be leading their men into battle, instead of driving them, as had been the rule—and this was said to be at the behest of the watching Kaiser. Then came the infantry in great numbers. During the next two days the fighting waxed ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... the fact that Snorri had given Audgisl Thorarinson a "chased axe" (one trick), and that, at Snorri's secret behest, Audgisl was now on the eve of taking the hood-owner's (Thorgils Hallason's) life (two). This, the hood says, it knows, though at most times it is 'dry.' 'Dry' here seems clearly to stand in the sense of 'clear of,' 'free from,' expers, immunis; ...
— Laxdaela Saga - Translated from the Icelandic • Anonymous

... Egyptian jewels worn by a Nubian savage. It has not the least self-restraint or good taste, but it sounds fresh, genuine and sincere. It brings out with fine distinctness the feudal fidelity of a reporter-errant, whose whole soul is dyed with belief in the great establishment whose behest he obeys—one of the last refuges in which mediaeval humility is to be found. As a part of the same habit of mind, Mr. Stanley shows a fine, literal, unquestioning championship of the object of his quest, Dr. Livingstone; but he seems to admire the doctor, after all, rather as an ornamental ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873 • Various

... so instantaneously upon the slightest hint. I saw her more than once or twice withdraw her fork when almost at her lips, and, almost before she had laid it down, rise from her seat to obey some half-whispered, half-nodded behest. But her look was one of injured meekness and self-humbled submission. Sir Giles now and then gave her a kind or merry word, but she would reply to it with almost abject humility. Her face was grey and pinched, ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald

... levity surprises me, and shakes all my resolutions. Such a sight awakens a storm of passion which I fear I cannot command, though I would punish myself, if this could make me lose that profound respect I wish to preserve. Yes, you have ordered me to bear patiently my unfortunate love; your behest has so much influence over my heart, that I will rather die than disobey you. But still, the joy you display tries me too severely; the wisest man, upon such an occasion, can but ill answer for his conduct. Suppress it, I beseech you, for a few moments, and spare me, Madam, ...
— Don Garcia of Navarre • Moliere

... damp moss clings upon its walls— The rotting drawbridge slowly falls— Its dreary silentness appalls! The iron bars are thick with rust And slowly moulder into dust; The roofless turrets show the sky, The moats below are bare and dry— No captain issues proud behest— The guard-room echoes to no jest; As I have said, within those walls The very silentness appalls! In other days it was not so— The Spanish banner, long ago, Above the turrets tall did flow. And many a gallant soldier there With musket or with gleaming spear, Pac'd ...
— A Wreath of Virginia Bay Leaves • James Barron Hope

... secretive house in an evil hour one inauspicious evening took it upon him to revile and abuse his father's servant, one Moussa Isa, an African boy, as he performed divers domestic duties in the exiguous "compound" of the dwelling-place and refused to do the fat youth's behest ere completing them. ...
— Driftwood Spars - The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who - Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life • Percival Christopher Wren

... law, guardians are appointed at Rome by the prefect of the city, and by the praetor when the case falls within his jurisdiction; in the provinces they are appointed, after inquiry, by the governor, or by inferior magistrates at the latter's behest if the pupil's property ...
— The Institutes of Justinian • Caesar Flavius Justinian

... own, and she pressed her nearest friends to make her "one of the family." "If," she would say, "you would let me share in any disappointments or troubles, I would feel more worthy of your love—I will tell you some of mine as a counter-irritant!" Many followed her behest with good result. "I'm cross this morning," wrote a young missionary at the beginning of a long letter, "and I know it is all my own fault, but I am sure that writing to you will put me in a better temper. When things go wrong, there ...
— Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary • W. P. Livingstone

... the oracle of the Pythia," she said at last. "We will not commit ourselves to anything at the behest of Richard Percival. On my way to the station, now, in fact, Madeline and I will go to see this rose among cabbages. We will introduce ourselves as your friends, Dick. If we think you are a mere deluded male thing, there ...
— Jewel Weed • Alice Ames Winter

... and 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 ...
— Jess of the Rebel Trail • H. A. Cody

... Gusterson 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

... lawyer dreamily, carefully placing the momentous wire in his pocket, "a good deed never goes unrewarded. Always remember that. There is nothing like the old biblical behest: 'Let us pray.' You for your bed of roses; me for—for——" mechanically he went to the small towel-cabinet and gravely pointed the unfinished observation with the black ...
— Garrison's Finish - A Romance of the Race-Course • W. B. M. Ferguson

... the vassal states was the growth of great families, whose private power was very apt to constrain the wishes of the reigning duke, count, or baron. Thus in the year 537, when the King of Ts'u was meditating a treacherous attack upon Tsin, he was warned that "there were many magnates at the behest of the ruler of Tsin, each of whom was equal to placing 100 war-chariots in the field." So much a matter of course was it to use chariots in war, that in the year 572, when the rival great powers of Ts'u and Tsin were contesting for suzerainty ...
— Ancient China Simplified • Edward Harper Parker

... charmingly, and a little court soon gathered around her. Doctor Harrison, who had been dining, remained upon the outskirts, listening to her light-hearted and at times almost brilliant chatter with grave and watchful interest. Dominey, satisfied that she was being entertained, obeyed Terniloff's gestured behest and strolled with him to a ...
— The Great Impersonation • E. Phillips Oppenheim



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



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