In less than half a century the husbands of its two co-heiresses, James, Duke of Hamilton, and Charles, Lord Mohun, were slain by each other’s hands in a murderous duel arising out of a dispute relative to the partition of the Fitton estates, and Gawsworth itself passed to an unlineal hand, by a series of alienations complicated beyond example in the annals of this country.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A dozen Representatives took their pens and sat down, some around a table, others with a sheet of paper on their knees, and called out to me,— "Dictate the Proclamation to us.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

The leaflet avoids direct reference to the Japanese, and is therefore "block" propaganda.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

Too little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

And there, after my discourse, Mr. Coventry of his own accord begun to tell the Duke how he found that discourse abroad did run to his prejudice about the fees that he took, and how he sold places and other things; wherein he desired to appeal to his Highness, whether he did any thing more than what his predecessors did, and appealed to us all.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

And if some of them by the might of their arms did rise to be emperors, in faith it cost them dear in the matter of blood and sweat; and if those who attained to that rank had not had magicians and sages to help them they would have been completely baulked in their ambition and disappointed in their hopes.” “That is my own opinion,” replied the traveller; “but one thing among many others seems to me very wrong in knights-errant, and that is that when they find themselves about to engage in some mighty and perilous adventure in which there is manifest danger of losing their lives, they never at the moment of engaging in it think of commending themselves to God, as is the duty of every good Christian in like peril; instead of which they commend themselves to their ladies with as much devotion as if these were their gods, a thing which seems to me to savour somewhat of heathenism.” “Sir,” answered Don Quixote, “that cannot be on any account omitted, and the knight-errant would be disgraced who acted otherwise: for it is usual and customary in knight-errantry that the knight-errant, who on engaging in any great feat of arms has his lady before him, should turn his eyes towards her softly and lovingly, as though with them entreating her to favour and protect him in the hazardous venture he is about to undertake, and even though no one hear him, he is bound to say certain words between his teeth, commending himself to her with all his heart, and of this we have innumerable instances in the histories.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Tom reddened and passed on; he would have felt it like the handling of a bruise, even if there had been the most polite and delicate reference to his position.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

"With all due respect to Master," Conseil told me, "we'll pass it by."
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

A thrill of terror and delight runs through the assembly.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

The skill and strength that were exerted in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they were invented in France, and eagerly adopted both in the East and West, presented a lively image of the business of the field.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

It happened, however, that, perhaps being absorbed in the cart, which might have been drawn by a friend or even a distant relative, the Indolent Apprentice was horribly startled by a large rabbit which leaped out of the hedge almost under his nose, and, worse still, was followed the next instant by another rabbit even larger and more sudden and unexpected in its movements.
— from The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, August, 1913 Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913 by Various

As you can imagine, this was perfect jargon to Nox and the Goat Girl, but Handy Mandy, convinced by this time that the Silver King was both sly and dangerous, resolved to fall in with his little supposition and see what would come of it.
— from Handy Mandy in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson

I had been asleep for some time, when I was awakened by the report of a musket, rapidly followed by several others; and the next instant the air was rent by the most terrific shrieks and yells, which seemed to come from all directions round the fort, while the voices of the officers shouting out their orders, and the tramp of the soldiers, were heard as they rushed to the ramparts.
— from The Young Llanero: A Story of War and Wild Life in Venezuela by William Henry Giles Kingston

So the astrogation-conference did not deal with a direct return to Earth, but with a small sol-type star not too far out of the direct line.
— from Operation: Outer Space by Murray Leinster

That same day also, Domitian received the title of Cæsar, and was made Prince of the Youths, and Præfect of Rome in the place of his uncle, who had been murdered.
— from Domitia by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

[128] There were 75 to 100 inhabitants in Oakland at this time, with half a dozen residences, two hotels, a wharf, and two warehouses.
— from Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific by Stuart Daggett

A fellow-creature was in peril and he could not, as a doctor, resist the call which had been sent.
— from Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons: Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

He was happy and dreamful rather than thoughtless.
— from Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace

John, who is a staunch church-goer, and by no means irreverently inclined, is instantly imbued with a deeper reverence than ever for parsons, and says apologetically, "Tis not making fun of them, miss, to liken them to flowers.
— from The Duchess of Rosemary Lane: A Novel by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon