Vanquished in battle, he dexterously employed the arts of negotiation; a Roman army was seduced from their allegiance, and the chiefs who had trusted to his faithless promise were murdered by his order in a church of Numidia.
— 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

Ah, yes—she fainted after drinking a cup of tea with the Countess—a proceeding which might have interested me if I had been her medical man, but being nothing of the sort I felt bored by hearing of it, nothing more.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Order being restored—the young lord (who to say truth, had been a little ruffled, and put beside his oratory) in as few, and yet as obliging words as possible, assured them of entire welcome; and, with a graceful turn, singling out poor Twenty Ninth of February , that had sate all this while mumchance at the side-board, begged to couple his health with that of the good company before him—which he drank accordingly; observing, that he had not seen his honest face any time these four years, with a number of endearing expressions besides.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

These words ended, he took hold of Chia Jui, and, extinguishing again the lantern, he brought him out into the court, feeling his way up to the bottom of the steps of the large terrace.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

He was satisfied with the form in which he had expressed his thoughts, but displeased that Borís had overheard it.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Every man, in moral reflection, is animated by his own intent; he has something in view which he prizes, he knows not why, and which wears to him the essential and unquestionable character of a good.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

He was unmarried, and had indeed nothing but his own interest to consider.
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

‘Make your story a short one,’ said he, putting his hand on the small silver bell that stood on the table beside him, ‘or I shall be obliged to call for assistance.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

" The accident, so fatal to all his profits, had restored my brother to his senses, and seeing that the mischief had been caused by his own insufferable pride, he rent his clothes and tore his hair, and lamented himself so loudly that the passers-by stopped to listen.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang

Constantia was a Woman of extraordinary Wit and Beauty, but very unhappy in a Father, who having arrived at great Riches by his own Industry, took delight in nothing but his Money.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

The singular appearance of Ellen Halloway also, at that moment, on the very bridge on which she had pronounced her curse on the family of De Haldimar, and in company with the terrible and mysterious being who had borne her off in triumph on that occasion to the forest, and under circumstances calculated to excite the most superstitious impressions, was not without its weight in determining their rude speculations; and all concurred in opinion, that the death of the unfortunate young officer was a judgment on their colonel for the little mercy he had extended to the noble-hearted Halloway.
— from Wacousta : a tale of the Pontiac conspiracy (Complete) by Major (John) Richardson

Yesterday, a train being derailed close by here on its way up to the front, and the men left stranded, we took them up a supply of cigarettes and chocolates that good friends at home had sent out.
— from Eighteen Months in the War Zone The Record of a Woman's Work on the Western Front by Kate John Finze

If, on the other hand, an event which may be rightly deemed of national importance be here omitted, it is because the citizens were little affected thereby, and the City's records are almost, if not altogether, silent on the subject.
— from London and the Kingdom - Volume 1 A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London. by Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson) Sharpe

The Friday afternoon session was opened by Professor Samuel B. Harding, of Indiana University, who read a paper on “Some Concrete Problems in the Teaching of Medieval and Modern History.”
— from The History Teacher's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 1, September, 1909 by Various

The Cause of Causes made ten Numerations, and called the Source of Spring KETHER, Corona , the Crown, in which the idea of circularity is involved, for there is no end to the out-flow of Light; and therefore He called this, like Himself, endless ; for this also, like Him, has no similitude or configuration, nor hath it any vessel or receptacle wherein it may be contained, or by means whereof any possible cognizance can be had of it.
— from Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike

While discouraging the multiplication of printed books, Francis I. formed a valuable collection of manuscripts, many of which were copies made by his orders in Italy.
— from Old and New Paris: Its History, Its People, and Its Places, v. 1 by H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland) Edwards

Her uncle gave her fatherly love and protection, but his thoughts were forever with his fine stock and broad hayfields, or in the memories of the stirring days gone by—the war and the wild West.
— from Wild Roses: A Tale of the Rockies by Howard R. (Howard Roscoe) Driggs

Agreeable enough he was; but as for your Quest of the Sangreal, whatever it may be, he seemed to have as little notion of anything beyond his own interest as any Greek I ever met."
— from Two Years Ago, Volume I by Charles Kingsley

Whenever Care intruded, this prince always bowed him out in the most princely manner.
— from The Light Princess by George MacDonald