One day, about twelve at noon, being thoroughly recovered of my fever, I happened to be in Mrs. Brown's dark closet, where I had not been half an hour, resting upon the maid's bed, before I heard a rustling in the bed-chamber, separated from the closet only by two sash doors, before the glasses of which were drawn two yellow damask curtains, but not so close as to exclude the full view of the room from any person in the closet.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

The idea of the unity of mankind constantly leads them back to the idea of the unity of the Creator; whilst, on the contrary, in a state of society where men are broken up into very unequal ranks, they are apt to devise as many deities as there are nations, castes, classes, or families, and to trace a thousand private roads to heaven.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Dusc' al tans Antecrist n'en istera mais nus."
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

p. 48-50,) who describes the duel, admires the ars nova of fighting on horseback, which was unknown to the Franks.
— 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 dance around them at night, and woe betide the unhappy peasant who joins them in their roundels.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

As soon as we set sail the natives all lay down on the deck as thick as negroes in a slave-pen, and smoked, conversed, and spit on each other, and were truly sociable.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

There was the usual amount of discussion as to a name for me.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

Now you disavow all this, and not only refuse to compensate me for what I have suffered, but have even appropriated money belonging to me, tempting me by suggestions that I should be partner in the affair, and luring me with various advantages which were to accrue.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And although by reason of the diversity of their essence they have many different advantages, these are neither so great nor of such a kind that they do not come exactly into balance together and that we do not perceive the infatuation or the obstinacy, rather than the judgment, of those who wish one to surpass the other.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

A stay was made at Dahra and then a night march carried us to Shumran, where there were signs of a cavalry fight and prisoners were being brought in.
— from With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia 1916—1917 by Anonymous

Astonishing as it may appear, there are a few other people in the world beside yourself and Donald, and they are not all going to be married and live happily ever after!”
— from The Fortunes of the Farrells by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

They are the kings of the day, and they are not yet chary of their royal persons, or tired of exhibiting the consciousness of their royalty in the streets.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848 by Various

Though the majority of these drawings for jewellery, in themselves works of extraordinary beauty, were copies of objects then already in existence, the presence of jewels similar to Mielich's designs leads to the supposition that this artist exercised a strong influence on the jewellers of his day, and that a number of jewels were also executed at the command of the Duke from original sketches of his.
— from Jewellery by H. Clifford (Harold Clifford) Smith

But before we enter on a particular description (and they are now known in their minutest details), let us notice what were the circumstances which led to their attracting so much attention.
— from Animal Parasites and Messmates by P. J. van (Pierre Joseph) Beneden

One, near the Chapel of St. George, is quite destroyed, and there are now no traces left of another between the Haye-du-Puits, and the Villocq.
— from Guernsey Folk Lore a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that island by MacCulloch, Edgar, Sir

Dahore flung his arms around his darling, and then, and not till then, woke up: for he had dreamed he was embracing him, and when he woke, he was delighted that it had not been merely a dream.
— from Hesperus; or, Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days: A Biography. Vol. II. by Jean Paul

Some time since papers were asked for, we agreed with gentlemen that they should be furnished; it was done, and they are now on your table.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Now, any master might have done all that, and nobody could have done anything about it.
— from Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe