We did not accept the excuse, which it was natural to suppose had been invented to save him the trouble of travelling to Shimonoséki, but I now incline to think that horrorstruck at the violent proceedings of his followers who had dared to fight against the defenders of the palace (and also repenting of their failure), the old prince had hastened to atone for the crime of treason, as far as lay in his power, by declaring his readiness to undergo any penalty that might be decreed by the sovereign—if his retainers would let him, being understood.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

Cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of Sky, or some other remote place, and were ruined by a flood, hurricane, or some such public calamity: or else called sky farmers from their farms being IN NUBIBUS, 'in the clouds.'
— from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

[ We have here, in that Greek MS. which was once Alexander Petavius's, but is now in the library at Leyden, two most remarkable additions to the common copies, though declared worth little remark by the editor; which, upon the mention of Tiberius's coming to the empire, inserts first the famous testimony of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, as it stands verbatim in the Antiquities, B. XVIII.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

For the southern Picts, who dwell on this side of those mountains, had, it is said, long before forsaken the errors of idolatry, and received the true faith by the preaching of Bishop Ninias, 302 a most reverend and holy man of the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose episcopal see, named after St. Martin the bishop, and famous for a church dedicated to him (wherein Ninias himself and many other saints rest in the body), is now in the possession of the English nation.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

Let us briefly say, then, that the ceremony was performed by the old clergyman, in the parish church of Dingley Dell, and that Mr. Pickwick’s name is attached to the register, still preserved in the vestry thereof; that the young lady with the black eyes signed her name in a very unsteady and tremulous manner; that Emily’s signature, as the other bridesmaid, is nearly illegible; that it all went off in very admirable style; that the young ladies generally thought it far less shocking than they had expected; and that although the owner of the black eyes and the arch smile informed Mr. Wardle that she was sure she could never submit to anything so dreadful, we have the very best reasons for thinking she was mistaken.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Therefore they who have abundance of money are called rich, but inwardly needy if they are greedy.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Prior to this, I had become, if not insensible to my lot, at least partly so.
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Belisarius is his subject; and we ourselves, whose birth is not inferior to your own, are not ashamed of our obedience to the Roman emperor.
— 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

He stood still and looked at it, and thought, "Many a bird must have built its nest in that."
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

Next she took in one hand (out of the brass tray) the stone and the egg, cockle-shell and candle-nut, and with the other planted the big iron nail in the centre of the sheaf close to the foot of the sugar-cane.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

Nevertheless these requisitions became, if not in the theory of state-law, at any rate practically, one of the most oppressive burdens of the provincials; and the more so, that the amount of compensation was ordinarily settled by the government or even by the governor after a one-sided fashion.
— from The History of Rome, Book IV The Revolution by Theodor Mommsen

Till the present business I never imagined that it was difficult to find people who would take your money.
— from Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 2 (of 2) by Edward Gibbon

When these facts are considered, Frederick’s action must be admitted to have been, if not in the interests of democracy, at least in support of the principle of self-determination for which the Allies claim to be fighting against Germany; and Carlyle’s endorsement of it at least creates the presumption that he would not sympathize with Germany, which today, greatly extended, is playing the part of the bullying nations he commended Frederick for thwarting.
— from The Unpopular Review, Number 19 July-December 1918 by Various

In this he explored the bay formed by the horse-shoe-shape of Basilisk Island, named it the Baya de San Milian (modern Jenkins Bay), and penetrated to the largest bay to be found among all the islands he had discovered in this region--that is Milne Bay.
— from The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea Being The Narrative of Portuguese and Spanish Discoveries in the Australasian Regions, between the Years 1492-1606, with Descriptions of their Old Charts. by George Collingridge

Oh, voch, but it makes my heart sore to think iv them days; they were pleasant times, sure enough; but is not it terrible, avick, to think it's what it was, the ghost of the rigiment you seen?
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, No. X., March 1851 by Various

The first bird I noticed in the quiet Mormon village where I settled myself to study was a little beauty in blue.
— from A Bird-Lover in the West by Olive Thorne Miller

This box is now in the possession of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
— from The Harmsworth Magazine, v. 1, 1898-1899, No. 2 by Various

[Pg 83] Petersburg; the Vatican , [81] also of the fourth century, and preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome; the Alexandrine , [82] of the fifth century, now in the British Museum; the Ephraem Codex , [83] of the fifth century, in the National Library at Paris; Beza’s Codex , [84] of the sixth century, in the University Library, Cambridge; and the Claromontane , [85] also of the sixth century, which formerly belonged to Beza, but is now in the National Library at Paris.
— from Lectures on Bible Revision by Samuel Newth

“But,” Blue Bonnet broke in, “nothing is too regular out there, not even the meals; that’s the delightful part of it.”
— from A Texas Blue Bonnet by Caroline Emilia Jacobs

“Yet if the Romantic School, by its name, its ties, its studies, its impressions, was allied to German traditions and French fashions, it was at bottom Italian in accent, aspiration, form, and motive....
— from Modern Italian Poets; Essays and Versions by William Dean Howells