[Exim] exim retry intervals

If I read this correctly, if a mail server I secondary for (using
exim) goes down and stays down for more than the retry interval, then
all new mail won't be queued, but rather bounced pretty quickly. This
isn't the desired behaviour (to my mind at least). I'd like new mail
to wait 5 days (or however long the retry period is) just like happens
with sendmail. Is there any (clean) way to do this?

Thanks,

Gary