espy vs peer at

espy

verb
  • To see (someone or something) without foreplanning or unexpectedly. 

  • To find out or observe (someone or something, especially if not easy to see) by spying or looking; to catch sight of; to see; to spot. 

peer at

How often have the words espy and peer at occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )