We soon found that it was folly to give them the article agreed upon until the work was done; for once the men had received what they coveted, they would abandon us, stealthily leaving the camp in the dusk at the first landing, and sometimes even rushing into the jungle in broad daylight.
— from Down the Orinoco in a Canoe by Santiago Pérez Triana

So heavy had their casualties been that our three Companies for the front line and support each relieved a Battalion.
— from The Sherwood Foresters in the Great War 1914 - 1919 History of the 1/8th Battalion by W. C. C. Weetman

In reserve, a battalion of sailors, as yet untried in land warfare, fretted and fussed at their position behind the actual firing line, and some even rolled in the yellow mud till their white suits were the color of marine khaki and then, rifle in hand, sneaked away from their command and joined their brothers in arms.
— from The Marines Have Landed by Giles Bishop

Lucy herself, to her own consciousness, trembled and faltered, and felt as if her voice and her looks must betray an amount of emotion which she would have died rather than show; but then Lucy had rehearsed this scene before, and knew all she intended by it; whereas upon the Curate, in his little flush and overflow of tenderness, it fell like a sudden earthquake, rending his fair edifice of happiness asunder, and casting him out into unexpected darkness.
— from The Perpetual Curate by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant