But though the people had understood the language, in the usage of social converse, there was a grand security against them in keeping them so destitute of the knowledge of letters, that the Bible, if such a rare thing ever could happen to fall into any of their hands, would be no more to them than a scroll of hieroglyphics.
— from An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance by John Foster

After riding their elegantly caparisoned horses round and round the ring several times, they formed into squadrons and attacked each other with their lances in sham battles.
— from Rollo in Paris by Jacob Abbott

He hasn't been as dutiful and amiable to me of late, as I have a right to expect, considering how I have found him in food and drink and tobacco, the best of all, and no stint.
— from Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

And yet, just now, the situation, as regards the Evangelical cause, had become more critical than at any previous time since the Diet of Worms.
— from Life of Luther by Julius Köstlin

Sir Roger ascended the pulpit, put down his [Pg 185] steel cap by his side, poured forth a long, rambling, confused prayer, took out his pocket Bible, and preached for two hours; till the sweat streamed down his bony cheeks, and his voice became hoarser than any raven that ever croaked his sad predictions at a sick man’s window.
— from The Broken Font: A Story of the Civil War, Vol. 2 (of 2) by Moyle Sherer

Some Englishmen are always having rows about this window question; but the best plan is to say nothing, and remember that every country has its own customs, which strangers ought to observe.
— from Peeps at Many Lands: Belgium by George W. T. (George William Thomson) Omond

He sent the car rocketing onward toward the house which was to witness a tragedy, a tragedy that was about to set the world agape, and spin a riddle that even Cleek himself would find almost impossible to solve.
— from The Riddle of the Purple Emperor by Mary E. Hanshew