"We had a fearful time," he said, "but it was the spate of mud that kept us back, and the Germans took advantage of it."
"From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917"
Philip Gibbs
A wud tell the daidlin', thowless, feckless, fushionless wratch o' a cratur tae watch for the first spate and droon himsel' in the Tochty.
"Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush"
Ian Maclaren
The three brothers broke into a spate of volunteering, and Rafe made an obscene suggestion.
"The Planet Savers"
Marion Zimmer Bradley