Usage examples for artifice:

• But such discoveries as this seem to reveal an extent of effort, and even of artifice which one would hardly otherwise have guessed at. "Robert Burns" – Principal Shairp

• Of a truth, to force upon us such a reversion was a right Prussian artifice "War" – Pierre Loti

• Oonamoo had told the exact truth, for Dernor had really approached the branches of the tree with the intention of using them as we have hinted, when he had seen that his pursuers would be sure to suspect such an artifice from the ready means afforded him; and he had, therefore, given over his first resolve, and continued his ascent of the creek. "The Riflemen of the Miami" – Edward S. Ellis

• Unless I very much mistake your physiognomy, you yourself come of an ancient race which is not without cunning and artifice but in such matters as you refer to, you are children, compared to your Far East folk. "The Orange-Yellow Diamond" – J. S. Fletcher