On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician.
— 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

Then your eyes ceased to pucker, but you continued to look across, and your face was thoughtful.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

And they marked a beach jutting forth from a bend of the coast, very broad to behold, and by dint of rowing came to land at sunrise.
— from The Argonautica by Rhodius Apollonius

cried Jo, clashing the lid of the warming-pan like a cymbal.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

In 1707 he came to London and was instructed and baptized by Dr. Allix in 1709.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

The hospital itself, the prior and canons’ house, with other lodgings, were made a dwelling-house; the churchyard is a garden plot, and a fair gallery on the cloister; the lodgings for the poor are translated into stabling for horses.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

'It is the spirit of my noble-minded Cora that leads them, Duncan', he said, 'and I will not balk it.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

Is it not time to awake from the deceitful dream of a golden age, and to adopt as a practical maxim for the direction of our political conduct that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue? Let the point of extreme depression to which our national dignity and credit have sunk, let the inconveniences felt everywhere from a lax and ill administration of government, let the revolt of a part of the State of North Carolina, the late menacing disturbances in Pennsylvania, and the actual insurrections and rebellions in Massachusetts, declare—!
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

The emperor himself was chaste, temperate, liberal, and merciful; but these qualities, which can only deserve the name of virtues when they are supported by courage and regulated by discretion, were seldom beneficial, and they sometimes proved mischievous, to mankind.
— 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

They represented that the trade with the Dutch was become their sole dependence: that they could expect no succour from Europe, by which they had been abandoned ever since the commencement of the war: that the traders vested with the privileges of trafficking among them had abused the intention of the general; and, instead of being of service to the colony, had fixed an arbitrary price for all the provisions which they brought in, as well as for the commodities which they exported; of consequence, the former was valued at as high a price as their avarice could exact, and the latter sunk as low in value as their own selfish hearts could conceive: that the colony for two months had been destitute of all kinds of provision; the commodities of the planters lay upon their hands, and their negroes were in danger of perishing through hunger; a circumstance that excited the apprehension of the most dreadful consequences; as to slaves, half starved, all kinds of bondage were equal; and people reduced to such a situation were often driven to despair, seeking in anarchy and confusion a remedy from the evils by which they were oppressed; that the best provided of the inhabitants laboured under the want of the common necessaries of life; and others had not so much as a grain of salt in their houses: that there was an irreparable scarcity of slaves to cultivate their land; and the planters were reduced to the necessity of killing their own cattle to support the lives of those who remained alive; so that the mills were no longer worked, and
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II. by T. (Tobias) Smollett

The manufacturers chose the latter alternative.
— from The Trade Union Woman by Alice Henry

Thus did Santron rattle on, sometimes of himself and his own future; sometimes discussing mine; for while talking, he had contrived to learn all the chief particulars of my history, from the time of my sailing from La Rochelle for Ireland.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851 by Various

The Prince, robbed of the woman he loved, took the bit in his teeth, and plunged so deeply into extravagant dallying with ballet-dancers and stars of the opera that the King was glad to choose the lesser evil, and to summon Wilhelmine back to her Prince's arms.
— from Love affairs of the Courts of Europe by Thornton Hall

Chetwode turned livid and then gray; held out her hand for the note and drew it back again.
— from Faithful Margaret: A Novel by Simpson, J. M., Mrs.

How strangely the shadow of Tragedy hangs over this ill-starred expedition; Louis XVI the projector, Laperouse and de Langle the commanders, Dentrecasteaux and Kermadec the searchers, Andre Chenier the laureate: the breath of the black-robed Fury was upon them all!
— from Laperouse by Scott, Ernest, Sir

[Pg 140] An eminent musician and composer, the late Dr. Ritter, told me that reading "Leaves of Grass" excited him to composition as no other poetry did.
— from Whitman: A Study by John Burroughs

Day and night I went about asking advice concerning the luggage.
— from Ghetto Comedies by Israel Zangwill

"What a lovely child!" cried the lady, stooping, and placing her hand on the Duchess's shoulder.
— from The Duchess of Rosemary Lane: A Novel by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon