They blockaded the French garrison by land, and a small squadron, under Captain Ball, began to blockade them by sea, on the 12th of October.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey

[7] I shall not stay here to inquire whether, as liberty is the noblest faculty of man, it is not degrading our very nature, reducing ourselves to the level of the brutes, which are mere slaves of instinct, and even an affront to the Author of our being, to renounce without reserve the most precious of all His gifts, and to bow to the necessity of committing all the crimes He has forbidden, merely to gratify a mad or a cruel master; or if this sublime craftsman ought not to be less angered at seeing His workmanship entirely destroyed than thus dishonoured.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In similar manner he collected lists of strong phrases, the phrases of living language, phrases that bit like acid and scorched like flame, or that glowed and were mellow and luscious in the midst of the arid desert of common speech.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

Sabinus indeed was well contented to get out of the danger he was in, but he distrusted the assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected such gentle treatment was but a bait laid as a snare for them: this consideration, together with the hopes he had of succor from Varus, made him bear the siege still longer.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

Late at my office, drawing up a letter to my Lord Treasurer, which we have been long about, and so home, and, my mind troubled, to bed. 20th.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

TESMAN. Give her my very best love, Auntie; and say I shall look in and see her later in the day.
— from Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

near the river we find the Cottonwood, sweet willow, broad leafed ash, a species of maple, the purple haw, a small speceis of cherry; purple currant, goosberry, red willow, vining and white burry honeysuckle, huckkle burry, sacacommis, two speceis of mountain holley, &common ash.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Who, after a long chase o'er hills, dales, bushes, And what not, though he rode beyond all price, Ask'd next day, 'If men ever hunted twice?' He also had a quality uncommon To early risers after a long chase, Who wake in winter ere the cock can summon December's drowsy day to his dull race,— A quality agreeable to woman, When her soft, liquid words run on apace, Who likes a listener, whether saint or sinner,— He did not fall asleep just after dinner; But, light and airy, stood on the alert, And shone in the best part of dialogue,
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

Then Erling let some of the lightest of his vessels be laid ashore, and spread the report that he would wait for Hakon, and, with the help of his friends and relations, oppose the enemy there.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

“She’s a bonnie lass and a sweet one.
— from Molly Brown's Freshman Days by Nell Speed

By letter Tom had arranged for a supply of gasolene which was to be left at a small settlement at one end of the lake.
— from Tom Fairfield in Camp; or, The Secret of the Old Mill by Allen Chapman

In 62 B.C., Pompey had returned from the Orient, where he had finished the conquest of Pontus, begun by Lucullus, and annexed Syria.
— from Characters and events of Roman History by Guglielmo Ferrero

In the presence of those you most wish to please, you shall be most awkward; and when approached by her you love, you shall become lifeless as a statue, under the irresistible spell of mauvaise honte .”
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 07 Patronage [part 1] by Maria Edgeworth

Francis, St., of Assisi , founder of the Franciscan order, born at Assisi, in Umbria; began life as a soldier, but during a serious illness his thoughts were turned from earth to heaven, and he devoted himself to a life of poverty and self-denial, with the result that his enthusiasm provoked emulation, and some of his neighbours associated with him and formed a brotherhood, which gave rise to the order; St. Dominic and he were contemporaries, "the former teaching Christian men how to behave, and the latter what they should think"; each sent a little company of disciples to teach and preach in Florence, where their influence soon made itself felt, St. Francis in 1212 and St. Dominic in 1220.
— from The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by P. Austin Nuttall

A short distance from me, and within view, a number of our wounded had been placed, and near where Major Booth's body lay; and a small red flag indicated that at that place our wounded were placed.
— from Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Fort Pillow Massacre. Returned Prisoners. by United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War

These birds are Finches of moderately large size, remarkable from the fact that the plumage they acquire during the breeding season is distinguished by the peculiar form and great length of a portion of the tail-feathers, this decoration being laid aside as soon as the period of incubation is over, and replaced by another of less striking appearance.
— from Cassell's Book of Birds, Volume 1 (of 4) by Alfred Edmund Brehm

The waiter took off his apron, closed one eye craftily, and, after a brutal laugh and a sharp glance around the circle of seaman, exclaimed: "Aw, nobody killed her-she just fell on th' knife!"
— from The Ice Pilot by Henry Leverage

—"But the most sublime scene is where a mural pile of porphyry, escaping the process 300 of disintegration that is devastating the coast, appears to have been left as a sort of rampart against the inroads of the ocean;—the Atlantic, when provoked by wintry gales, batters against it with all the force of real artillery—the waves having, in their repeated assaults, forced themselves an entrance.
— from Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir