They had arrived at a foregone conclusion, and asked for only the shadow of an excuse to mask their preconcerted designs against the chief and last stronghold of self-government.
— from The Corporation of London, Its Rights and Privileges by William Ferneley Allen

The sad procession took almost half an hour to defile; and then came a long string of country cars and carts, with sea chests and other stores belonging to our officers, and, last of all, some eight or ten ammunition wagons and gun carriages, over which an English union-jack now floated in token of conquest.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851 by Various

He got down at the corner, and leaving Shargar to go on to The Boar's Head and look after the luggage, walked into his grandmother's house and straight into her little parlour.
— from Robert Falconer by George MacDonald

“There is good Madame Dépressier, and the comtesse, and little Sophie,—who needs me, poor child, in her struggle and loneliness,—and the others, true and good all; but none near.
— from The Rescue by Anne Douglas Sedgwick

The Saracen fleet, after getting decidedly the worst of the combat, escaped up the Nile; and the Saracen soldiers, beaten and dispersed, retired precipitately, and flying in confusion towards Damietta, abandoned their camp, and left several of their emirs dead on the field.
— from The Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX. by John G. (John George) Edgar

Notwithstanding this difference, all the colonies are loyal subjects of the English Crown, and all stand ready to defend the English flag.
— from The Leading Facts of English History by D. H. (David Henry) Montgomery

The rye is free to marry her, or to marry you, ma'am, but never to marry the angel, unless—" Mother Cockleshell adjusted the bundle carefully on the donkey, and then cut a long switch from the tree.
— from Red Money by Fergus Hume

Armande is, of course, enchanted by this proof of devotion, and, to cut a long story short, they resolve to continue their respective rôles off the stage.
— from Queens of the French Stage by H. Noel (Hugh Noel) Williams

Then a precipitous hill blocked the way, extending a considerable distance along the creek, and leading sheer to the water from a variable height of forty to sixty feet.
— from Canoe Boys and Campfires; Or, Adventures on Winding Waters by William Murray Graydon

In antiquity, Hippocrates and Aristotle thought that human life was too short, and Theophrastus, although he died at an advanced age (he lived probably seventy-five years) lamented when he was dying “that nature had given to deer and to crows a life so long and so useless, and to man only one that was often very short.”
— from The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies by Elie Metchnikoff