The mountains of Switzerland are more majestic and strange, but there is a charm in the banks of this divine river that I never before saw equalled.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

From him he received another flagellation still more severe, so that the cuts of the lash and the bites of the dog rendered him sore, stiff and miserable, insomuch he was scarcely able to move.
— from Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana by Solomon Northup

And right as Beaumains overtook the damosel, right so came Sir Kay and said, Beaumains, what, sir, know ye not me?
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

The energy of resolve is dissipated in an endless brooding on the deed required.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. (Andrew Cecil) Bradley

It's a pretty tight fit, certainly!' From far down below on the dark river came drifting the tinkle of a mandoline, and voices singing the old round: 'A boat, a boat, unto the ferry, For we'll go over and be merry; And laugh, and quaff, and drink brown sherry!'
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. The Man Of Property by John Galsworthy

Then they go on to tell how the Roman empire had arrived at its highest point of power, and saw all the then known world—the orbis terrarum—subject to its laws, when an unforeseen event raised up enemies against it from the very heart of the forests of Scythia, and on the banks of the Don river.
— from The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

All efforts to restore animation proved unavailing till the false king, with the instinct of a true sportsman, transferred his own soul to the body of the deceased ram, and thus renewed the fray.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

The animal was quite safe; but, lest he might go to the bottom of the deep ravine, where his headlong struggles were leading him, I scrambled after him, and delivered three other shots, t
— from The Diary of a Hunter from the Punjab to the Karakorum Mountains by Augustus Henry Irby

Tom Blount felt interested, and hurried up now over the sand and fir-needles, till his head was above the top of the slope; and the next minute he was looking down at the back of the dog’s master, as he was calmly stuffing the body of the defunct rabbit inside the lining of his coat, a slit in which served for a pocket.
— from The Vast Abyss The Story of Tom Blount, his Uncles and his Cousin Sam by George Manville Fenn

Peters threw a quick, furtive glance around him; and, for an instant, seemed hesitating whether he should attempt to follow the example of the rest of his band; but another glance at the watchful and menacing eye of his opponent gleaming at him over the barrel of the deadly rifle, taught the folly of any such attempt, and, throwing down his weapons, he said,— “I yield myself a prisoner of war, sir.”
— from The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777 by Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce) Thompson

With all respect, as all courtesy, he welcomed to participation in his pursuits the woman whom he had looked upon as by training and even nature cut off from such participation, and he gladly embraced the opportunity to prove to the women of the land that his deference for their sex was not limited to the bounds of the drawing room, but was a thing which was unlimited in application.
— from Women of America Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 10 (of 10) by John Ruse Larus

The dead man lying in the crushed grass—his arms thrown out helplessly on either side of him—the gloom of the trees all around—the murmuring of the waters, where Till was pouring its sluggish flood into the more active swirl and rush of the Tweed—the hot, oppressive air of the night—and the blood on the dry road—all that was what, at Mr. Gilverthwaite's bidding, I had ridden out from Berwick to find in that lonely spot.
— from Dead Men's Money by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

THE WATER CANNIBALS Besides the friendly Nûñnĕ′hĭ of the streams and mountains there is a race of cannibal spirits, who stay at the bottom of the deep rivers and live upon human flesh, especially that of little children.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

We have seen that the Dutch West India Company established (1623) a trading post, called Fort Nassau, on the banks of the Delaware River within the present town of Gloucester, N.J., and four miles below the future site of Philadelphia.
— from The Colonies, 1492-1750 by Reuben Gold Thwaites

While we were enjoying our cigars in the cool of the evening upon the "azotea" of our hotel, we saw a file of soldiers march up to a house directly opposite, and after repeated efforts to enter, they finally burst open the door; reappearing in a few moments with seven or eight "coolies," who were apparently dead drunk, but in reality were [Pg 91] stupefied with opium; having met, by appointment, to "shuffle off this mortal coil" after this characteristic fashion.
— from The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner by J. (John) Wilkinson

The horses strain and "scaut," and the cart bumps over the deep ruts, nearly upsetting.
— from A Cotswold Village; Or, Country Life and Pursuits in Gloucestershire by J. Arthur (Joseph Arthur) Gibbs

Did not the laborers in the vineyard so find it when those who came at the eleventh hour, and had borne naught of the heat and the burden of the day, received the same reward as they?
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 21, April, 1875, to September, 1875 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various