espial

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An act of noticing or observing.

   “Secure—unnoted—Conrad's prow pass'd by, / And anchor'd where his ambush meant to lie; / Screen'd from espial by the jutting cape, / That rears on high its rude fantastic shape.”

   “She had, however, the comfort of knowing that her lady's wardrobe was in her power, but it did not avail her much, as the servants of the house were so shocked at the Frenchwoman's refusal to nurse her sick lady, that every eye was upon her in the way of espial and condemnation; […]”

2. (countable, uncountable)The fact of noticing or observing; a discovery.
3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A scout; a spy.

   “these be most necessarie for the espials belonging vnto a camp”

   “King. Sweet Gertrude leave us too, For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as 'twere by accident, may there Affront Ophelia. Her Father[ ]and my selfe (lawful espials) Will so bestow our selves, that seeing unseene We may of their encounter frankely judge”