A body of assistants, followers, or servants attending a person of rank or importance.
However, in my thoughts I could not sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who dare venture to mount and walk upon my body . . . His Excellency having mounted on the small of my right leg, advanced forwards up to my face, with about a dozen of his retinue . . .
From Swift's Gulliver's Travels; Book I: "A Voyage to Lilliput".
