Each step of the retreat was accompanied by a complicated interplay of interests, arguments, and passions at headquarters.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

The Thalassians, who had also borne a chorus in the psalm, caused store of belly-timber to be brought out of their houses.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

There was not the least doubt but that he would do as he said, and the two poor fellows were obliged to obey the cruel mandate; but, when the captain was asleep, the two negroes took a blanket and carried it to the unfortunate Stoker, which I believe was the means of saving his life from the annoyance of insects.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African Written By Himself by Olaudah Equiano

In ‘The Golden Legend’ there is a pleasant tale of a gentleman who, having fallen into poverty, went into solitude, and was there approached by a chevalier in black, mounted on a fine horse.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

Inattention to physical things (going with incapacity to control them) is accompanied by a corresponding intensification of interest and attention as to the doings of people.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

When they had gone from house to house and collected all the money they could, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it in procession to the parish churchyard, where they made a grave and buried it “with the utmost solemnity, singing dirges over her in the Manks language, which they call her knell; after which Christmas begins.”
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

After which I caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be the receiver of the annual profits of my plantation: and appointing my partner to account with him, and make the returns, by the usual fleets, to him in my name; and by a clause in the end, made a grant of one hundred moidores a year to him during his life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores a year to his son after him, for his life: and thus I requited my old man.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Then Sir Percival wrote all the story of her life and put it in her right hand, and so laid her in a barge and covered it with silk.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

also Scot, Discovery , p. 67: ‘Robin could both eate and drinke, as being a cousening idle frier, or some such roge, that wanted nothing either belonging to lecherie or knaverie, &c.’
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson

The geometer has made in his first reflection so clear and violent an abstraction from the sun's actual bulk and qualities that he will never imagine himself to be speaking of anything but a concretion in discourse.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

He received a collegiate education, and became a connoisseur in literature and art.
— from English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Henry Coppée

At Mestre he was met by some gentlemen of his acquaintance, all smiles and bows and compliments, in whose company he crossed the shadowy lagoons and disembarked.
— from Italian Yesterdays, vol. 2 by Fraser, Hugh, Mrs.

But what made amusement bliss and converted interest into ecstacy,—what opened not the ears only, but also the mouth of Master George Dummer, and lighted the glow-worm fire of enthusiasm in the eyes of Miss Ann Grigg, was the beautiful, the mellifluous, the voluptuous "Cachucha."
— from Portraits of Children of the Mobility by Percival Leigh

NORMANDY FISH PIE Fill a baking-dish with any kind of fish, freed from skin, fat, and bone, and cut into small pieces.
— from How to Cook Fish by Myrtle Reed

These remarks, the reader will observe, respect stile only; for the merit of Robertson, as a judicious and faithful historian; and of Kaims and Blair, as critics, is above praise or censure.
— from Dissertations on the English Language, with Notes, Historical and Critical; to Which is Added, by Way of Appendix, an Essay on a Reformed Mode of Spelling, With Dr. Franklin's Arguments on that Subject by Noah Webster

This very consideration may be material with respect to some countries of which we have been the creditors; but I do not see how our relations with those which are not corn countries can be affected by any change in the corn laws.
— from Maxims and Opinions of Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington, Selected From His Writings and Speeches During a Public Life of More Than Half a Century by Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of

He embarked, was present at a battle, and celebrated it, on his return, in a copy of verses too had for the bellman.
— from Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays; Vol. 4 With a Memoir and Index by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

So he said, "I will go and get my sister, and we shall cut it up and put it in a basket and carry it home together."
— from Canadian Fairy Tales by Cyrus MacMillan

If she only had a thousand francs she could be married to a poor laborer named Godain, who knew all , and who loved her like a brother; he could buy a poor bit of ground and build a cottage if she had that sum.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

The room made anything but a comfortable impression, with its cold, rough, whitewashed walls, low ceilings and narrow barred windows; the heavy logs of wood which blazed and crackled in the clumsy stone fire-place, threw out a grateful warmth, for the weather was bitter cold and the ground covered with snow.
— from The Northern Light by E. Werner