Now the souls of those brave fellows, according to Gripe-men-all’s riddle, after their decease enter into wild boars, stags, roebucks, herns, and such other creatures which they loved, and in quest of which they went while they were men; and these Furred Law-cats, having first destroyed and devoured their castles, lands, demesnes, possessions, rents, and revenues, are still seeking to have their blood and soul in another life.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms.
— from A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens

Having greeted Mrs. Lovell Mingott, a large blonde lady in creaking satin, he sat down beside his betrothed, and said in a low tone: "I hope you've told Madame Olenska that we're engaged?
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

There was hair upon the end, which blazed and shrunk into a light cinder, and, caught by the air, whirled up the chimney.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

For we that want the warmth of double life, We that are plagued with dreams of something sweet Beyond all sweetness in a life so rich,— Ah, blessed Lord, I speak too earthlywise, Seeing I never strayed beyond the cell, But live like an old badger in his earth, With earth about him everywhere, despite All fast and penance.
— from Idylls of the King by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas [Pg 74] morning, where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snowstorms.
— from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude; and shall afflict them four hundred years: but the nation whom they shall serve will I judge; and afterward shall they come out hither with great substance.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

But what is said to Abraham, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to servitude, and shall afflict them 400 years," is most clearly a prophecy about the people of Israel which was to be in servitude in Egypt.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

When the king had returned, and the musketeer, who saw everything, had seen a corner of the tapestry over the cardinal's window lifted up, he breathed a profound sigh, like a man unloosed from the tightest bonds, and said in a low voice: "Now then, my officer, I hope that it is over."
— from The Vicomte De Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas

Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like; all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the people, be stout and warlike.
— from The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral by Francis Bacon

Here is a species of cosmogony, which appears to us ridiculous; because a spider is a little contemptible animal, whose operations we are never likely to take for a model of the whole universe.
— from Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume

"R-ride?" said the Emperor, putting his great hand on the head of the boy and shaking it a little.
— from Silas Strong, Emperor of the Woods by Irving Bacheller

After which confluence, the said Stoure runneth by Iuor bridge, and so into Auon, leauing Christs church aboue the méeting of the said waters (as I haue said before.) Burne.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

The man seated himself beside Sonny Boy and spoke in a low tone.
— from Sonny Boy by Sophie Miriam Swett

The bones are spread in a large room, where you can work at your leisure, undisturbed by any mortal, from morning till night, taking your breakfast and dinner with us.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

she cried, and ere a hand could be raised to prevent her she had buried the blade in her lovely breast and sank in a laughing, coughing, heap at his feet.
— from The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini

It whisked him away to a building he did not see from the outside; he was taken up by private elevator to a suite of rooms which might—for all he could tell—have been a suite in a luxury hotel or a lunatic asylum.
— from The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley