I said, ‘All right, sir,’ wondering what he was fussing about, since I had to call him before altering the course anyhow.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

All the cabins were full, all the cattle-stalls in the main stable were full, the spaces at the heads of companionways were full, every inch of floor and table in the swill-room was packed with sleeping men and remained so until the place was required for breakfast, all the chairs and benches on the hurricane deck were occupied, and still there were people who had to walk about all night!
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

At one time the moon, which had before been clear, was suddenly overspread by a thick cloud, and I took advantage of the moment of darkness, and cast my basket into the sea: I listened to the gurgling sound as it sunk, and then sailed away from the spot.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

But hadn't you really been able to contribute any more, no one would have a word to say; but the gold and silver, round as well as flat, have with their heavy weight pressed down the bottom of the box!
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

"Meeting may be of war-men, Where the best war-man wins; But all this carrion a man shoots Before the fight begins.
— from The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Its effect on Presidents had been always tragic, chiefly as an almost insane excitement at first, and a worse reaction afterwards; but also because no mind is so well balanced as to bear the strain of seizing unlimited force without habit or knowledge of it; and finding it disputed with him by hungry packs of wolves and hounds whose lives depend on snatching the carrion.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

Presently his fingers began to pick busily at the coverlet, and by that sign I knew that his end was at hand with the first suggestion of the death-rattle in his throat he started up slightly, and seemed to listen: then he said: “A bugle?...
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

According to the anonymous writer in Montfaucon, the Pantheon had been vowed by Agrippa to Cybele and Neptune, and was dedicated by Boniface IV., on the calends of November, to the Virgin, quæ est mater omnium sanctorum, (p. 297, 298.)]
— 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

A few Amazons which were mad with anger did not return with the main army, but went on slaughtering blindly among the conquered and the fugitives of the three species, fusca , pratensis , and sanguinea .
— from Animal Intelligence The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV. by George John Romanes

Did much business at the 'Change, and so home to dinner, and then to my office, and there late doing business also to my great content to see God bless me in my place and opening honest ways, I hope to get a little money to lay up and yet to live handsomely.
— from Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 25: November/December 1663 by Samuel Pepys

On this second point the few scraps of verse which Bergé had been able to collect, and which he submitted in the essay cited above, leave absolutely no doubt.
— from The Influence of India and Persia on the Poetry of Germany by Arthur F. J. Remy

On Francis going to the palace he found assembled, not only the young men who would be Matteo's comrades as volunteers, but also the captain and other officers of the ship; and to them Signor Giustiniani personally presented Francis, while Rufino and Matteo did all they could to ensure the heartiest welcome for him, by telling everyone how greatly they were indebted to him, and how gallantly he had behaved on several occasions.
— from The Lion of Saint Mark: A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

To these must be added the communications addressed from the world center of the Faith as well as by Bahá’í national and local assemblies, whether telegraphically or in writing, to the Palestine High Commissioner, pleading for the delivery of the keys of the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh to its original keeper; the appeals made by Bahá’í centers in East and West to the Iráqí authorities for the restoration of the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Ba gh dád; the subsequent appeal made to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, following the verdict of the Ba gh dád Court of Appeals in that connection; the messages despatched to the League of Nations on behalf of Bahá’í communities in the East and in the West, in appreciation of the official pronouncement of the Council of the League in favor of the claims presented by the Bahá’í petitioners, as well as several letters exchanged between the International Center of the Faith, on the one hand, and that archetype of Bahá’í teachers, Martha Root, on the other, with Queen Marie of Rumania, following the publication of her historic appreciations of the Faith, and the messages of sympathy addressed to Queen Marie of Yugoslavia, on behalf of the world-wide Bahá’í Community, on the occasion of the passing of her mother, and to the Duchess of Kent following the tragic death of her husband.
— from God Passes By by Effendi Shoghi

When we got back the Senator told us that the very young man I had been talking to had had a quarrel with his wife, and they were actually settling the divorce proceedings when Mr. Purdy's invitation to meet the English travellers came the evening before, and they had sent off the lawyers and made it up to be able to come, and now they may go on happily for another two years, he says!
— from Elizabeth Visits America by Elinor Glyn

Its hair is of a light golden hue, done up in the latest Parisian style; the eyes are as blue as the summer sky, its cheeks are suffused with the most modest blushes, and to crown all—wonder of all wonders—from its tiny and well shaped ears hang a pair of the tiniest earrings.
— from The Daily Newspaper: The History of Its Production and Distibution by Anonymous

Calisthenes, the Greek philosopher who accompanied Alexander the Great in his Eastern conquests, transmitted to Aristotle a series of observations made at Babylon nineteen centuries before the capture of that city by Alexander; and the wise men of Babylon and the Chaldean astrologers are referred to in the Sacred Writings.
— from Letters on Astronomy in which the Elements of the Science are Familiarly Explained in Connection with Biographical Sketches of the Most Eminent Astronomers by Denison Olmsted

At the time of Cavour's birth the palace of the Bensos at Turin contained a complete and varied society composed of all sorts of nationalities and temperaments.
— from Cavour by Martinengo-Cesaresco, Evelyn Lilian Hazeldine Carrington, contessa