avant-couriers

Some short five years more, and the great Armada will have come and gone; and then that avenging storm, of which they, like Oxenham, Hawkins, and Drake, are but the avant-couriers, will burst upon every Spanish port from

Westward Ho! 2007

Lies and mischief were his avant-couriers wherever he travelled.

The Virginians 2006

Two such figures alighting at the inn gate did not pass through the yard unnoticed and unadmired by the guests and attendants, some of whom fairly took to their heels, on the supposition that these outlandish creatures were the avant-couriers or heralds of a French invasion.

The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves 2004

Whereupon, somewhat moved by his remonstrances, and more by heavy charges for print and paper, which he stated to have been already incurred, I have resolved that these four volumes shall be the heralds or avant-couriers of the Tales which are yet in my possession, nothing doubting that they will be eagerly devoured, and the remainder anxiously demanded, by the unanimous voice of a discerning public.

Old Mortality 2004

Although, when viewed in the relation of time, they may seem to form the continuous succession of spawning fish which have come up _gravid_ from the ocean during the later months of autumn, they are in truth rather the _avant-couriers_ of the newer and more highly-conditioned shoals which show themselves in early spring.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843 Various

These, however, were but the avant-couriers of the immortal Rip.

"Marse Henry" : an autobiography, 1921

Among his elaborate precautions of privacy was a pair of avant-couriers, who always preceded his pony-chaise in its daily progress through

The Works of Max Beerbohm Max Beerbohm 1914

First come little snowbirds, _avant-couriers_ of the feathered army; then bluebirds in national uniforms, just graduated, perhaps, from the ornithological corps of cadets with high honors in the topographical class; then follows a detachment of flying artillery -- swallows; sand-martens, sappers and miners, begin their mines and countermines under the sandy parapets; then cedar birds, in trim jackets faced with yellow -- aha, dragoons!

Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor Volume I Various 1900

These, however, were but the avant-couriers of the immortal Rip.

Marse Henry (Volume 2) An Autobiography Henry Watterson 1880

These, however, were but the avant-couriers of the immortal Rip.

Marse Henry, Complete An Autobiography Henry Watterson 1880