Then, Mr Brass left off writing entirely, and, with his pen in his hand, hummed his very loudest; shaking his head meanwhile from side to side, like a man whose whole soul was in the music, and smiling in a manner quite seraphic.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Besides Lucretia, of whom enough has already been said, our advocates of suicide have some difficulty in finding any other prescriptive example, unless it be that of Cato, who killed himself at Utica.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

So-called Courts of Love were formed where questions of an amorous nature were discussed in all their bearings; learned opinions were expressed on the most trivial matters, and offenses were tried.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

They are proud, respected, loved by women, cheered by the crowd, solely because their mission is to shed human blood; They drag through the streets their instruments of death, that the passer-by, clad in black, looks on with envy.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

King Harald's son, Bjorn, ruled over Vestfold at that time, and generally lived at Tunsberg, and went but little on war expeditions.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

So Puck set off, and wandering through the wood found, not Demetrius, but Lysander, on whose eyes he put the juice; but when Lysander woke, he saw not his own Hermia, but Helena, who was walking through the wood looking for the cruel Demetrius; and directly he saw her he loved her and left his own lady, under the spell of the purple flower.
— from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Last, twenty yeomen, two and two, In hosen black, and jerkins blue, With falcons broidered on each breast, Attended on their lord’s behest: Each, chosen for an archer good, Knew hunting-craft by lake or wood; Each one a six-foot bow could bend, And far a clothyard shaft could send; Each held a boar-spear tough and strong, And at their belts their quivers rung.
— from Marmion: A Tale Of Flodden Field by Walter Scott

But let one wander ever little from the path, attempt to make a new and direct descent, and let one of those mists which hang so near a Scotch day actually descend upon the top of the Ben—it is not the mildest sensation to find one's foot poised just at the edge of a precipice.
— from The Spell of Scotland by Keith Clark

These altogether numbering about 1000 men together with about 600 'club-men' set out from Blackburn late on Wednesday evening, February 8, for Preston, which is ten miles away.
— from The Great Civil War in Lancashire (1642-1651) by Ernest Broxap

Thus, little by little, order was evolved from chaos, and the astute manager chuckled happily to himself in quick appreciation of the unusual rapidity with which the newly engaged utility man grasped the situation and mastered the confusing details.
— from Beth Norvell: A Romance of the West by Randall Parrish

“Oh, mamma, don’t get it now,” begged Lily, overcome with embarrassment, adding, desperately, “Do look at the lovely thing Elise is making.”
— from Jane Lends A Hand by Shirley Watkins

At last the fated city, its numerous entrances being laid open, was entered by the Romans, and the furious troops destroyed all whom they found, without regard to age or sex.
— from The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Ammianus Marcellinus

He had dared all, had won; the most powerful bowed with quaking knees before him, and trembled lest they might, by a blundering look or word, excite his anger and cause him to snatch their possessions from them.
— from The Deluge by David Graham Phillips

Leaving with regret the veranda which commanded so enchanting a foreground of flowers, rare shrubbery, and bearded live oaks, with each graceful sylvan outline distinctly penciled upon the waters of the river, we enter the house, and are reminded by its low-browed, old-fashioned rooms, of the country houses yet to be found in parts of Ireland or the Scottish border, with additions made by the luxury and love of foreign travel of more than one generation of educated Southern planters.
— from The Civil War in America Fuller's Modern Age, August 1861 by Russell, William Howard, Sir

A little way below where the islesman stood, there were three or four broad ledges of which even the lowest would still be unswept by the sea.
— from Pharais; and, The Mountain Lovers by William Sharp

The labor required of children, and the burdens laid on women, enfeebled the very springs of life.
— from Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy

Goldsmith on this occasion drew on himself the attention of the company by launching out with enthusiasm on the poems recently given to the world by Chatterton as the works of an ancient author by the name of Rowley, discovered in the tower of Redcliffe Church, at Bristol.
— from Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography by Washington Irving