The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves.
— 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

For he did not take with him all the maidens who were drawn by lot, but he chose two youths, his intimate friends, who were feminine and fair to look upon, but of manly spirit; these by warm baths and avoiding the heat of the sun and careful tending of their hair and skin he completely metamorphosed, teaching them to imitate the voice and carriage and walk of maidens.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch

With those words he took her up in his arms; and, with the veiled face lying on his bosom, and addressed towards his own, carried her, motionless and unconscious, down the stairs. H2 anchor CHAPTER 51.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

And in those new countries discovered in this age of ours, which are pure and virgin yet, in comparison of ours, this practice is in some measure everywhere received: all their idols reek with human blood, not without various examples of horrid cruelty: some they burn alive, and take, half broiled, off the coals to tear out their hearts and entrails; some, even women, they flay alive, and with their bloody skins clothe and disguise others.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

After a moment I fancied that I felt a slight pulsation of the heart, and as I had been assistant at the hospital at Bastia, I did what a doctor would have done—I inflated the lungs by blowing air into them, and at the expiration of a quarter of an hour, it began to breathe, and cried feebly.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

Next morning, as we were walking in the garden, she said to me,— “The sacrifice to the moon has been performed, and to make sure I will cause him to renew his caresses tonight as soon as we go to bed; and after that he is certain to sleep soundly.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

While We still were standing in the murky pit— Beneath the giant’s feet [799] set far below— And at the high wall I was staring yet, [Pg 242] When this I heard: ‘Heed to thy steps [800] bestow, Lest haply by thy soles the heads be spurned 20 Of wretched brothers wearied in their woe.’
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

On the death of his father, Ralph Nickleby, who had been some time before placed in a mercantile house in London, applied himself passionately to his old pursuit of money-getting, in which he speedily became so buried and absorbed, that he quite forgot his brother for many years; and if, at times, a recollection of his old playfellow broke upon him through the haze in which he lived—for gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal—it brought along with it a companion thought, that if they were intimate he would want to borrow money of him.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

He had the face and beard which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid, the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue, spade-shaped and rippling down over his chest.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

“I cannot promise, Lady Dargan,” he answered, “for such trouble as I have had before I have had to bear alone, and the habit is fixed, I fear.
— from The Trespasser, Complete by Gilbert Parker

Why should I not give him up and accuse you of being an accessory to his concealment?"
— from The Pagan's Cup by Fergus Hume

Meanwhile, Fred Ellice and Isobel grew and improved in mind and body; but anxiety as to his father's fate rendered the former quite unable to pursue his studies, and he determined at last to procure a passage in a whale-ship, and go out in search of the brig.
— from The World of Ice by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

The discussion ran so high, the Cardinal declared so positively that he would not present himself unless he were to be addressed according to his rank, the difficulty of arriving with due freedom at any decision was so great, that it was determined to refer the matter to the Emperor himself, and this foolish dispute was actually brought before him on the battle-field.
— from Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, Vol. 2 of 2 by Madame de (Claire Elisabeth Jeanne Gravier de Vergennes) Rémusat

But with him the sensation does not stop with surprise: it speedily becomes amazement, and then horror; for he is of the comparative type, and therefore sees things done and hears things said, on every hand, that are not said and done at all in the same way in London.
— from Penelope's Irish Experiences by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

While the President at Monticello was giving orders to Goliah, the gardener, to Jupiter, the hostler, to Bacon and all the head men of the shops, Lewis would gallop home to visit his mother at Locust Hill just out of Charlottesville.
— from The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark by Eva Emery Dye

To this Don Garcia de Toledo replied by an assurance that he should come to his relief by the middle of June.
— from History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Vols. 1 and 2 by William Hickling Prescott

But at another time he used to go through the workshops of the goldsmiths, and engravers and other artisans, arguing vainly concerning the art of each; at another time he engaged in conversation in public with any of the plebeian he met; again, wandering around the common taverns, he indulged in potations with foreigners and strangers of the lowest grade.
— from The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books by Livy

C7-238 In August of 1963, he gave the New Orleans police as a reason for refusing to permit his family to learn English, that “he hated America and he did not want them to become ‘Americanized’ and that his plans were to go back to Russia.”
— from Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by United States. Warren Commission

Now at that time I had my Jupiter still with me: for indeed I could not be rid of him: and at times the man could talk most reasonably and for weeks together would be sane and sober: but above all things he held me dear for my goodness to him; and seeing me in deep thought he says to me, "Dear son, give away your blood-money; gold, silver, and all."
— from The Adventurous Simplicissimus being the description of the Life of a Strange vagabond named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim by Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen