Marshal Cottin and Nucingen were witnesses at the wedding of Hortense Hulot and Wenceslas Steinbock.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

She swore splendidly; she boasted of being able to crack a nut with one blow of her fist.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

And plaintive glides along the dreary coast, A naked, wandering, melancholy ghost!
— from The Iliad by Homer

The entrance was by a large gate, open by day and closed at night, with two iron ship's guns near at hand.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

In a vision of the night it was revealed to her that the city and neighbourhood would be destroyed by water, and the sign promised was that when the stone lions in front of the yamên wept tears of blood, then destruction was near at hand.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

Then a lengthy middle strophe is recited, in which all the parts of a canoe are named with two verbs one after the other.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

The assembled nobles all took off their uniforms and settled down again in their homes and clubs, and not without some groans gave orders to their stewards about the enrollment, feeling amazed themselves at what they had done.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Waiting until they were all tolerably quiet and composed again, Nicholas, who stood in need of some rest after his long journey, retired to his own room, and throwing himself, dressed as he was, upon the bed, fell into a sound sleep.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

“Here they are!” said Miss Pross, rising to break up the conference; “and now we shall have hundreds of people pretty soon!”
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Men make the city and not walls or ships without men in them.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Yet he was holding himself in check, and narrowly watching the others, for the race was not a short one, and he knew the danger of getting winded too early in it, and spending his strength so that he had none left for a final spurt.
— from Tom Fairfield's Schooldays; or, The Chums of Elmwood Hall by Allen Chapman

There were bits of Anarchies before, little and greater: but till that of France in 1789, there was none long memorable; all were pygmies in comparison, and not worth mentioning separately.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21 by Thomas Carlyle

"Ah," I said, "and so the phantom predicted an event that followed as indicated." "Spiritual illusions," explained the Professor, "are not unusual, and well authenticated cases are not wanting in which they have been induced in persons of intelligence by functional or organic disorders.
— from Etidorhpa; or, The End of Earth. The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey by John Uri Lloyd

Hereto the Pope with a starting voice and countenance answered; Neither will I lose the disposing of spirituall promotions in England, for the Kings head that beareth the Crowne; before God (said hee) I aduow it .
— from The Lives of the III. Normans, Kings of England: William the First, William the Second, Henrie the First by Hayward, John, Sir

They retain their German citizenship, while they turn out cheap and nasty wares under the ægis of a protective fiscal system.
— from The Heart of Asia A history of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the earliest times by Ross, E. Denison (Edward Denison), Sir

with the idea of a calamity such as had been related, which more or less revolts the human mind even in the most indifferent cases, and no wonder that to hear of its being so closely connected with the being to whom her interests and affections were so closely linked caused an inward shudder and a dark shadow to pass across the full-tided happiness of her heart.
— from Mary Seaham: A Novel. Volume 1 of 3 by Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline) Grey

Perhaps she had scarcely heard my name; It was not her time to love; beside, Her life had many a hope and aim, Duties enough and little cares, And now was quiet, now astir,
— from Browning's Shorter Poems by Robert Browning

" For when little children lie fast asleep, And darkness enshrouds the world so deep, And weary eyes close to gaze only in dreams, This story-book bird With the big round eyes, Whom nothing escapes, So knowing and wise, Watches and peers, with never a wink, Into crannies and nooks where one might think No danger would come, so peaceful it seems.
— from Christmas Carols and Midsummer Songs by Various

She would now be contented and never worry again.
— from The Price of Things by Elinor Glyn