In the reign of his father Arcadius, a band of adventurous Huns had ravaged the provinces of the East; from whence they brought away rich spoils and innumerable captives.
— 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

The church lay a little way back from the straggling High street, and a rough wooden gate opened from the churchyard into a broad meadow, that was bordered by a running stream, and sloped down into a grassy valley dotted by groups of cattle.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

They were irritated to this pitch of rude banter, by a report spread a few days before, that, upon some one’s commending his person as still florid and vigorous, he replied, Eti moi menos empedoi estin.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

The count knit his brows, and remained silent an instant.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

We thought that we had accounted for all the motive forces that could come into play, that we had rationalized the relation between the patient and ourselves until it could be as readily surveyed as an example in arithmetic, and yet some force begins to make itself felt that we had not considered in our calculations.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

Loyal respect and decency tell even the imagination not to look too keenly and audaciously about the sacred audience-chamber, but to back away rapidly, silently, and respectfully, making profound bows out of the August Presence.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

And even so it will blaze and run, scorching all things; and, from Cadiz to Archangel, mad Sansculottism, drilled now into Soldiership, led on by some 'armed Soldier of Democracy' ( say, that Monosyllabic Artillery-Officer ), will set its foot cruelly on the necks of its enemies; and its shouting and their shrieking shall fill the world!—Rash Coalised Kings, such a fire have ye kindled; yourselves fireless, your fighters animated only by drill-serjeants, messroom moralities, and the drummer's cat!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Paul Petrovitch's tone was now studiously polite, for he was beginning to feel irritated with the man—his aristocratic nature could not altogether stomach Bazarov's absolute lack of ceremony, the fact that this doctor's son not only knew no diffidence, but actually returned snappish and reluctant answers, and infused a brusquerie akin to rudeness into his tone.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

When you know them, then read any book at random slowly aloud to yourself, very carefully pronouncing each word.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

That map had been made by a renowned sailor and pilot, named Martin de Boesme.
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

You always want trenches; you ought to ha’ been born a rabbit Snippy.” “Ain’t they got any necks, then?” said a third, abruptly—a little, contemplative, dark man, smoking a pipe.
— from The War of the Worlds by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

It was here that Peroo’s pipe shrilled loudest, for the first stroke of the big gong had brought the dinghy back at racing speed, and Peroo and his people were stripped to the waist, working for the honour and credit which are better than life.
— from The Bridge-Builders by Rudyard Kipling

If Pilate had had a well-balanced mind, I should have asked only two years to teach him metaphysical truth; and as metaphysical truth is necessarily allied to moral truth, I flatter myself that in less than nine years he would have become a real scholar and a perfectly honest man.
— from Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire

"I don't know as I care to be a regular soldier," answered Darry.
— from Boys of The Fort; Or, A Young Captain's Pluck by Edward Stratemeyer

We mark the inalienable love of home, of the mother-country, in a thousand tokens, and find the measureless ocean bridged by sympathy and memory, and Old England renewed in such forms as make us scarcely conscious of our distance from it; though sometimes thought itself, when the thousand leagues of waters that flow between are remembered, seems almost powerless to present our beloved home to us as something real, so vague, so dim, so inaccessibly remote has it become since we left its shores.
— from John Holdsworth, Chief Mate by William Clark Russell

Selim, his son, dear young master, who was so very superior to him, and all whom he had ever seen, his Master Selim, who had such a beautiful mamma at Zanzibar—his Master Selim, whom he had seen dressed in gold and silver raiment, in the beautifullest clothes of blue and red silk, and whitest linen, Niani saw looking at him with eyes full of kindness, and a smile on his face,—for which he would have gone through the hottest fire,—with a look which went straight into him, and kindled within him a feeling akin to idolatry, and heard the sweetest words which were ever uttered in his hearing from him.
— from My Kalulu, Prince, King and Slave: A Story of Central Africa by Henry M. (Henry Morton) Stanley

But Auldin ran swiftly around the foot of the bed, and Hanlon was more or less cornered in a narrow space.
— from Alien Minds by E. Everett (Edward Everett) Evans

When they entered the tiny bedroom Aunt Raby spoke again— “Your dress will do, but I have been fretting about your winter jacket, Prissie.
— from A Sweet Girl Graduate by L. T. Meade

[34] Sir Peter Parker's breeches were carried away by a round shot at Fort Moultrie.
— from The Little Red Foot by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers