I am a poor lad, and live in one of the narrowest of lanes; but I do not want for light, as my room is high up in the house, with an extensive prospect over the neighbouring roofs.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

True it is she went a-cold most of her time, being kept of her husband ill covered abed; for, like as Messer Ricardo di Chinzica (of whom we already told) taught his wife to observe saints' days and holidays, even so the doctor pretended to her that once lying with a woman necessitated I know not how many days' study to recruit the strength and the like toys; whereof she abode exceeding ill content and like a discreet and high-spirited woman as she was, bethought herself, so she might the better husband the household good, to betake herself to the highway and seek to spend others' gear.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

They went away the next day for Lyons, and my readers will hear of them again at Liege.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

After that home by coach, and took my L100 that I had formerly left at Mr. Rawlinson’s, home with me, which is the first that ever I was master of at once.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

As I have a shrewd knack of guessing when the waters are low—that is to say, when money is scarce, without being told, I says this morning to our young mother, while she was dandling the little girl on her lap: 'But,' I says,'you have some work here that you finished long ago: Monsieur Rochebrune's waistcoats.
— from Frédérique, vol. 1 by Paul de Kock

b Pilate, of course, could not escape full legal and moral responsibility for his cowardly surrender to the Sanhedrin to keep his own office.
— from A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ Based on the Broadus Harmony in the Revised Version by A. T. Robertson

The worthy man at first laughs at my request, being greatly surprised by the importance which I attribute to the abhorrent animal, the Darboun; but at last he consents, not without a suspicion at the back of his mind that I am going to make myself a gorgeous winter waist-coat with the soft, velvety skins of the Moles.
— from The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles by Jean-Henri Fabre

The apothecary, whom he provided with means, came from Liverpool, and Mr. Rogers was at first supposed to have given him only his custom and countenance in trade.
— from Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives by George S. McWatters

In compliance with this order he promptly withdrew from his position facing Longstreet and marched rapidly along the Sudley Road to the center of the battlefield where he reported to Pope for orders.
— from Manassas (Bull Run) National Battlefield Park, Virginia by Francis Wilshin

After a spell of scientific study he would come upon a fatigue period and find nothing in life but absurdities and a lark that one could represent very amusingly; after a bout of funny drawings his mind went back to his light and crystals and films like a Magdalen repenting in a church.
— from Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

On the 27th, I sent Mr Brooks, my first lieutenant, and Mr Rainor, first lieutenant of marines, to relieve Mr Randal and Mr Dodd in the Mercury, which I had fitted with a gang of oars, and, upon trial, she was found to make way at the rate of three knots, which might render her extremely useful in a calm.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10 Arranged in systematic order: Forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery, and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time. by Robert Kerr

And so the house of death we flee, For life alone must round us dwell.
— from The Poems of Schiller — Third period by Friedrich Schiller

And then at last, after a journey of nearly five thousand miles, we slowed up in a fog so dense it dripped from the scuppers of the ship; we heard the boom of the surf pounding upon the invisible shore, and the hoarse bark of a chorus of sea-lions, and were told we were at the threshold of the Golden Gate, and should enter it as soon as the fog lifted and made room for us.
— from In the Footprints of the Padres by Charles Warren Stoddard