The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe

By some, who delight in the contrast, the modern language of Athens is represented as the most corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of the vulgar Greek: 58 this picture is too darkly colored: but it would not be easy, in the country of Plato and Demosthenes, to find a reader or a copy of their works.
— 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

In came a beggar of the strolling crew, And did what all those princes could not do.'
— from The Odyssey by Homer

The sun had now fulfill’d his annual course, And Boreas on the seas display’d his force: I fix’d upon the temple’s lofty door
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

Here orange plants bloomed, here birds poured forth melodious hymns; and here, during spring, the cold snake emerged from the clefts, and basked on the sunny terraces of rock.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if I rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this inscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver was spent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have been expended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread and clothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works for the time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small time besides, as I suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and in working at the excavation under the ground? 126.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

Above this nation is situated a small tribe the Struthophagi 736 (or Bird-eaters), in whose country are birds of the size of deer, which are unable to fly, but run with the swiftness of the ostrich.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) Literally Translated, with Notes by Strabo

During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone.
— from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

For it happened one day at Antioch, when the city was in perfect tranquillity, a comic actor being on the stage with his wife, acting some common play, while the people were delighted with his acting, the wife suddenly exclaimed, "Unless I am dreaming, here are the Persians;" and immediately the populace turning round, were put to flight, and driven about in every direction while seeking to escape the darts which were showered upon them; and so the city being burnt and numbers of the citizens slain, who, as is usual in time of peace, were strolling about carelessly, and all the places in the neighbourhood being burnt and laid waste, the enemy loaded with booty returned in safety to their own country after having burnt Mareades alive, who had wickedly guided them to the destruction of his fellow-citizens.
— from The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Ammianus Marcellinus

It is, I think, the privilege of us Varings here in the dominions of the Greek emperor to be free, and independent of all but their own commanders, and bound only to serve the emperor and empress."
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

As he crossed a bridge over the stream, he heard voices on the farther end.
— from A Quarter-Back's Pluck: A Story of College Football by Lester Chadwick

( Note :—Each volume contains a bibliography of the subject by John P. Anderson.)
— from Manual of Library Cataloguing by John Henry Quinn

Thirty-seven years ago the French cut off the head of the reigning Bourbon, Louis XVI., and now they have called another branch of the same house, of whom Bonaparte said: "They never learn anything, and they never forget anything."
— from Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

I suppose the Queen herself ’d not crowd a body off the sidewalk if you met her there.
— from The Daft Days by Neil Munro

I made observations during a great part of the night and found the latitude near the cathedral by the Spica Virginis, alpha of the Centaur, and beta of the Southern Cross, under circumstances not equally favourable, to be 21 degrees 48 minutes 20 seconds.
— from Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3 by Alexander von Humboldt

The French have no Commodities in Canada , by reason of the Cold and Barrenness of the Soil, proper for the West-India Markets, and therefore have no Rum but by Vessels from France , that touch at their Islands in the West-Indies .
— from Papers Relating to an Act of the Assembly of the Province of New-York For encouragement of the Indian trade, &c. and for prohibiting the selling of Indian goods to the French, viz. of Canada by Cadwallader Colden

Raynaldus cites a Bull on that score addressed by Alexander, in the first year of his pontificate, to the bishops of Spain, enjoining them to visit with punishment all who in that kingdom should be discovered to be pursuing such a traffic.
— from The Life of Cesare Borgia by Rafael Sabatini