A moment later a raven flying overhead dropped a similar leaf at Sigmund’s feet, and he, understanding that the gods wished to help him, laid it upon Sinfiotli, who was at once restored to life.
— from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber

But her hesitation was only for an instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

During the next weeks, all the time she went about in the same dark richness, her eyes dilated and shining like the eyes of a wild animal, a curious half-smile which seemed to be gibing at the civic pretence of all the human life about her.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

One evening, quitting our inn, we strolled down a shady lane, then up a grassy slope, till we came to an eminence, that commanded an extensive view of hill and dale, meandering rivers, dark woods, and shining villages.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

What frequent divorces, or worse mischief, would oft sadly happen, except man and wife, were so discreet as to pass over light occasions of quarrel with laughing, jesting, dissembling, and such like playing the fool?
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

And in some remote epoch, built up by volcanic disgorgings and successive layers of lava, who knows whether the peaks of these fire–belching mountains may reappear above the surface of the Atlantic!
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

The contents were, that if the captain would embrace the Roman catholic religion, he should be indemnified for all his losses since the commencement of the war; his wife and children should be immediately released, and himself honourably promoted in the duke of Savoy's army; but if he refused to accede to the proposals made him, his wife and children should be to put to death; and so large a reward should be given to take him, dead or alive, that even some of his own confidential friends should be tempted to betray him, from the greatness of the sum.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

She was really beautiful; but some said she was rather dull, and slept late of a morning.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

It was the first time De Peyster’s name had been mentioned since his abrupt departure, and Inez flushed deeply as she listened.
— from The Spell by William Dana Orcutt

Twenty years he dallied there between conjugial love and its chaste delights and scortatory love and its foul
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

Law therefore wishes (tends) to be the finding out of reality, though it does not always succeed in doing so 77 Objection taken by the Companion — That there is great discordance of laws in different places — he specifies several cases of such discordance at some length.
— from Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 2 by George Grote

In the churchyard is the “dormitory of St. Declan,” a small low building, held in great veneration by the people in the neighbourhood, who frequently visit it in order to procure some of the earth, which is supposed to cover the relics of the saint.
— from The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 2 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac by William Hone

It deals with principles rather than details, and suggests lines of thought instead of attempting an exhaustive treatment of the subject.
— from Christianity and Ethics: A Handbook of Christian Ethics by Archibald B. D. (Archibald Browning Drysdale) Alexander

I went immediately to Koscam as fast as I could gallop, and found there Guebra Christos, a man used to bring the jars of bouza 496 to Ras Michael at his dinner and supper: low men are always employed on such errands, that they may not, from their consequence excite a desire of vengeance.
— from Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5) In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 by James Bruce