cried Athos; “nothing escapes him.”
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

If there be a chance left, this seems it, and verily the last chance; and now every hour is rendering this a doubtfuller.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Many of the children are naked everywhere hereabouts and they stand with sunburned heads, their backs covered only with coats of dirt, eating their bean food in the street.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey

"Idle curiosity and nothing else," he pronounced sententiously, "but you shall be satisfied.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He undertakes to prove, that he did never take a token of any captain to get him employed in his life beforehand, or demanded any thing: and for the other accusation, that the Cavaliers are not employed, he looked over the list of them now in the service, and of the twenty-seven that are employed, thirteen have been heretofore always under the King; two neutralls, and the other twelve men of great courage, and such as had either the King’s particular commands, or great recommendation to put them in, and none by himself.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

“The idea of living in a mountainous country, and not even having lights in the streets at night!
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Spiritus lethales alibi, aut scrobibus emissi, aut ipso loci situ mortiferi: alibi volucribus tantum, ut Soracte vicino urbi tractu: alibi præter hominem cæteris animantibus: nonnunquam et homini; ut in Sinuessano agro, et Puteolano.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Jacob Bryant

This time Mrs. Fisher actually put up her hand and held Mrs. Wilkins's cheek against her own—this living thing, full of affection, of warm, racing blood; and as she did this she felt safe with the strange creature, sure that she who herself did unusual things so naturally would take the action quite as a matter of course, and not embarrass her by being surprised.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

For instance, when a man says that the lines drawn from the centre of a circle to its circumference are not equal, he then, at all events, assuredly attaches a meaning to the word circle different from that assigned by mathematicians.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

But only the crying and nothing else happening made my heart give a shiver, like bad luck was in the air.
— from Hungry Hearts by Anzia Yezierska

His habitual hardness had toned down somewhat, not from any cowardice; a nobler element had been at work.
— from Virgin Soil by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

These warlike people had come from the plains of Asia, and in Central and Northern Europe had increased to such an extent that they could at length find scarcely enough pasturage for their flocks.
— from The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic by Arthur Gilman

As if the clouds are not enough, Heaven's windows open wide, To pour upon the startled earth The overflowing tide.
— from The Flood by Anonymous

Though our cellars are near empty he will make shift to find you some full flagons.
— from The Lady of Loyalty House: A Novel by Justin H. (Justin Huntly) McCarthy

[1] This regiment was composed of eight companies and numbered eight hundred men.
— from Once Upon a Time in Delaware by Katharine Pyle

Immediately upon the inauguration of Governor Burnett, General Riley issued this remarkable proclamation: "To the People of California: A new executive having been elected and installed into office, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the State, the undersigned hereby resigns his powers as Governor of California.
— from California Romantic and Resourceful A plea for the Collection, Preservation and Diffusion of Information Relating to Pacific Coast History by John Francis Davis

It is not his clothes, altogether, nor even his hair, nor that drooping moustache, but a certain expression of I know not what, an indefinable suggestion of evil.
— from Jean Baptiste: A Story of French Canada by James Edward Le Rossignol