“So!” thought the lieutenant, “‘tis to General Cromwell that our dispatches are addressed.”
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

First, because the Scripture itself, even when, in treating in order of the kings and of their deeds and the events of their reigns, it seems to be occupied in narrating as with historical diligence the affairs transacted, will be found, if the things handled by it are considered with the aid of the Spirit of God, either more, or certainly not less, intent on foretelling things to come than on relating things past.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

The trees in sunny neighbourhoods, therefore, being solidified by the compact texture of their fibre, and not being porous from moisture, are very useful, so far as durability goes, when they are hewn into timber.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

The greensward way was smooth and good, Through Humbie’s and through Saltoun’s wood; A forest glade, which, varying still, Here gave a view of dale and hill, There narrower closed, till overhead A vaulted screen the branches made.
— from Marmion: A Tale Of Flodden Field by Walter Scott

Anderson cites the old constitutions as saying that he encouraged the Masons, and brought many over from France and elsewhere.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

When we came to one of these, Alan would leave me in the way, and go himself and rap upon the side of the house and speak awhile at the window with some sleeper awakened.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Carlo, the old steward, could tell such things, they say, if he would.' 'How contradictory is this, Annette!' said Emily, 'you say nothing has been since known of her, and yet she has been seen!' 'But all this was told me for a great secret,' rejoined Annette, without noticing the remark, 'and I am sure, ma'am, you would not hurt either me or Benedetto, so much as to go and tell it again.'
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

"Don't 'ee, sir—please don't 'ee!" cried the whirling child, as helpless under the centrifugal tendency of his person as a hooked fish swinging to land, and beholding the hill, the rick, the plantation, the path, and the rooks going round and round him in an amazing circular race.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Then I myself—such was my purpose—had, on the sounding of the trumpet, appeared in the lists as thy champion, disguised indeed in the fashion of a roving knight, who seeks adventures to prove his shield and spear; and then, let Beaumanoir have chosen not one, but two or three of the brethren here assembled, I had not doubted to cast them out of the saddle with my single lance.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

The pycnostyle is a temple in an intercolumniation of which the thickness of a column and a half can be inserted: for example, the temple of the Divine Caesar, that of Venus in Caesar's forum, and others constructed like them.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

The Yankees come through on every plantation where they were working and entered into every house and told us we was free.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Arkansas Narratives, Part 6 by United States. Work Projects Administration

But, unfortunately, between it and where she now lurked grew a thick bed of nettles, which made it impossible to creep thither on her hands and knees.
— from A Tale of the Summer Holidays by Geraldine Mockler

We had a few hours ashore at Madeira while they were coaling and overhauling the damaged machinery, and the flowers and fruit were beautiful as ever; the men and boys swarmed round the steamer in little boats, and would dive into the sea for silver coins thrown overboard: one or two of them could dive down under our ship and come up on the other side.
— from A Nurse's Life in War and Peace by E. C. (Eleanor Constance) Laurence

In this way Colonel Thorold, of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and other officers, met their deaths.
— from London to Ladysmith via Pretoria by Winston Churchill

The director is their temporary deity who commands the orchestra beneath and the stage above—a little universe of music.
— from Stars of the Opera A Description of Operas & a Series of Personal Interviews with Marcela Sembrich, Emma Eames, Emma Calvé, Lillian Nordica, Lilli Lehmann, Geraldine Farrar & Nellie Melba by Mabel Wagnalls

Her heart felt like lead, but, not able to bear that look on his face again, she kept cheerfully talking of their return, asking about his home, how to get to it, speaking of Oxford and next term.
— from The Dark Flower by John Galsworthy

She was, when she came to our home, only thirty-seven years of age, and looked not more than twenty.
— from The Harvest of Years by Martha Lewis Beckwith Ewell

No! winds may indeed have assisted in shaping their outlines, but I cannot think, that these constituted the originating cause of their formation.
— from Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia Performed Under the Authority of Her Majesty's Government, During the Years 1844, 5, and 6, Together With A Notice of the Province of South Australia in 1847 by Charles Sturt

He was sitting with his back to a window, my boy, his head drooped upon his breast beneath the weight of the Emancipation Proclamation, and, with arms folded and legs screwed awry on his chair, he was contemplating the opposite wall from under his Conservative hat.
— from The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 3 by R. H. (Robert Henry) Newell

Taken all in all, there was in that little company sheltered under the old house that night, a strange combination of plots and counter plots, secrets and mysteries; and to Houston himself, as he sat a little apart from the others, watching the group with thoughtful eyes, it seemed a curious coincidence, that, on that evening, and at that place, there should be assembled so many of the principal actors in the drama which he knew must ere long be enacted, and he was unable to shake off a vague presentiment that this was the opening scene.
— from The Award of Justice; Or, Told in the Rockies: A Pen Picture of the West by A. Maynard (Anna Maynard) Barbour