An Ape asked a Fox for a part of her tail, that he might decently cover his naked hinder parts therewith; but the ill-natured creature replied : “Although it grow even longer than it is , still I will sooner drag it through mud and brambles, than give you ever so small a part thereof .”
— from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes by Phaedrus

The very suggestion of a charge never fails to act as a tonic to any British cavalry regiment, and in great elation of spirits the two cavalry regiments debouched from the village, the 4th Dragoon Guards making their exit from the left, and the two squadrons of the 9th Lancers from the right.
— from The First Seven Divisions Being a Detailed Account of the Fighting from Mons to Ypres by Hamilton, Ernest, Lord

As they came nearer they could see the black savages, naked save for a loin cloth, running about in great excitement, and pointing upward.
— from Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle; Or, Daring Adventures in Elephant Land by Victor Appleton

It was thus pretty dark when they struck the coast road, and it grew ever darker as they ran northward through a bare, treeless country, with the cliff edge never far away and the North Sea glimmering beyond.
— from The Spy in Black by J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston