“Be it so, or not,” said Sir Reynold, the third brother; “let us now go to our brother Gaunter’s rescue; we shall have enough to do to match that knight, for, by his stature, I believe it is Sir Lancelot or Sir Tristram.” Anon, they took their horses and galloped after Sir Lancelot; and Sir Gilmere first assailed him, but was smitten down forthwith, and lay stunned on the earth.
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

"Be it sin or no," said Hester Prynne, bitterly, as still she gazed after him, "I hate the man!"
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

[213] “Be it sin or no,” said Hester Prynne, bitterly, as she still
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

His nephew: an inns-of-court man, who neglects law, and runs mad after wit, pretending much to love, and both in spite of nature, since his face makes him unfit for one, and his brains for the other.
— from The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 10 by John Dryden

If, as was often the case, the French battalion tried to deploy in front of the English line, so as to bring more muskets to bear, it seldom or never succeeded in accomplishing the manœuvre, for each company, as it straggled out from the mass, got shot down so quickly that the formation could never be completed.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 1, 1807-1809 From the Treaty of Fontainbleau to the Battle of Corunna by Charles Oman

Hence, if all the elements of which the body consists, whether they be attractive or repulsive, act proportionally to the inverse square of the distance, it is evident that the resultant of all such actions will also be proportional to the inverse square of the distance, whenever the form of the body is spherical, or nearly so, as is the case with the celestial bodies.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 19, April 1874‐September 1874 by Various

“They're going to tow us back, I suppose?” “Oh, no, sir,” the man replied.
— from Pawned by Frank L. (Frank Lucius) Packard

"Not by individual selfishness, or national selfishness, has the progress of the human race been advanced."
— from British Socialism An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals by J. Ellis Barker

Below, including sides of neck, superciliary lines and spot under eye, canary-yellow, palest on abdomen and crissum, narrowly streaked on sides of chin, on the throat, breast and sides with black which is veiled by grayish edgings; auriculars mouse-gray.”
— from Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers, Part One and Part Two by Arthur Cleveland Bent

The lubra does her best, in spite of Nature’s stinginess, and slings her baby across her hip or over her back in a shawl or length of calico, or at the worst a strip of gum-fibre.
— from On the Wallaby Through Victoria by Elinor Mordaunt