The ladies had no maid or attendants; and the general, commanding all the mighty forces of the United States on the Pacific coast, had to scratch to get one good meal a day for his family!
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

More power, citizen. —Hurrah, there, says Joe.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

The rank and services of Gratian contributed, however, to smooth the first steps of the promotion of his son; and afforded him an early opportunity of displaying those solid and useful qualifications, which raised his character above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers.
— 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

Thus spake Friar Tuck, but in a low voice so that Robin could not hear him, for he felt somewhat nettled at Robin's cutting his talk so short.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

It is a wonder to relate that prodigious temperance of some hermits, anchorites, and fathers of the church: he that shall but read their lives, written by Hierom, Athanasius, &c., how abstemious heathens have been in this kind, those Curii and Fabritii, those old philosophers, as Pliny records, lib.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

She left me, and I pondered over the lucky chance that had put so desirable and fine a woman into my arms, and also congratulated myself on the stratagem by which I had fully convinced her that she was my first instructress in the art of love, a circumstance ever dear to the ardent imagination of the darling sex.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

I came here to set my back against the wall, and I am going to stay here . . .”
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

When they were come home, they showed his head to the family, and then set it up as they had done others before, for a terror to those that should attempt to do as he hereafter.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan

Nevertheless, the Jews seemed to have clearly understood that our Saviour called Himself the Son of God in the proper sense of that word; and if they looked upon this as a blasphemous expression, it is an additional proof of their ignorance of the incarnation, and of God, the Son of God, being sent upon earth for the redemption of mankind.
— from The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV of XLIII. Romances, Vol. III of III, and A Treatise on Toleration. by Voltaire

She held his beak to keep him quiet when Master and the children came near, but as the latter were passing they could hear the smothered laughter of Roc.
— from Silas Strong, Emperor of the Woods by Irving Bacheller

Among the boys of Central High, their sisters and the other girls belonging to the secret society were spoken of as “Mothers of the Republic.”
— from The Girls of Central High on the Stage; Or, The Play That Took The Prize by Gertrude W. Morrison

So it turned out, to cut the matter short, that the Company held the said election privately by themselves.
— from With the King at Oxford: A Tale of the Great Rebellion by Alfred John Church

The octogenarian "receives so many blows that he cannot recover"; the abbé du Puy is knocked down and dragged along by a rope attached to his feet; M. de Langoirac's head is cut off, carried about on a pike, taken to his house and presented to the servant, who is told that "her master will not come home to supper."
— from The French Revolution - Volume 2 by Hippolyte Taine

Roldan agreed to do this, if he could have the same position he held before, and if Columbus would see that his followers had all the land they wanted.
— from The True Story of Christopher Columbus, Called the Great Admiral by Elbridge S. (Elbridge Streeter) Brooks

A strong British force, coming down upon Washington from the north, might compel him to surrender or to fight at a great disadvantage.
— from The American Revolution by John Fiske

He promised to do what he could for me, and five or six days afterwards he made me the following proposal: "He read me a letter from Calsabigi, of whom I had never heard, in which he charged him to send a virtuous young lady to Berlin.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 24: London to Berlin by Giacomo Casanova