The paper was very yellow, and the ink very brown; some of the sheets were (as Miss Matty made me observe) the old original post, with the stamp in the corner representing a post-boy riding for life and twanging his horn.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Mrs. Phillips was quite awed by such an excess of good breeding; but her contemplation of one stranger was soon put to an end by exclamations and inquiries about the other; of whom, however, she could only tell her nieces what they already knew, that Mr. Denny had brought him from London, and that he was to have a lieutenant's commission in the ——shire.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The man who makes his escape, we repeat, is inspired; there is something of the star and of the lightning in the mysterious gleam of flight; the effort towards deliverance is no less surprising than the flight towards the sublime, and one says of the escaped thief: “How did he contrive to scale that wall?” in the same way that one says of Corneille: “Where did he find the means of dying? ” At all events, dripping with perspiration, drenched with rain, with his clothes hanging in ribbons, his hands flayed, his elbows bleeding, his knees torn, Thénardier had reached what children, in their figurative language, call the edge of the wall of the ruin, there he had stretched himself out at full length, and there his strength had failed him.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

And when the Phoenicians and the Chaldeans that followed him thought they should have liberty to plunder the city, and torment the high priest to death, which the king's displeasure fairly promised them, the very reverse of it happened; for Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the high priest.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

This arrangement held for a certain time, but later it was determined that a man once enrolled in the senate should be a senator for life and that his name should not be erased, unless one had been disgraced by being tried for the commission of a crime or was convicted of leading an evil life: the names of such persons were erased and others inscribed in their stead.
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Cassius Dio Cocceianus

Mountain breeds always differ from lowland breeds; and a mountainous country would probably affect the hind limbs from exercising them more, and possibly even the form of the pelvis; and then by the law of homologous variation, the front limbs and the head would probably be affected.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

While preparations were making for these nuptials, Montoni became the acknowledged lover of Madame Cheron; and, though Madame Clairval was much displeased, when she heard of the approaching connection, and was willing to prevent that of Valancourt with Emily, her conscience told her, that she had no right thus to trifle with their peace, and Madame Clairval, though a woman of fashion, was far less advanced than her friend in the art of deriving satisfaction from distinction and admiration, rather than from conscience.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

Sometimes, string searches just return a line or a few lines around the hit.
— from The Online World by Odd De Presno

She was a woman of extremely dark complexion, her hair jet-black, her eyes scarcely lighter—a woman who had once been very handsome, and whose lost youth and beauty now and then seemed to flash back into her face, when eagerness, anger, or any other strong feeling lent animation to her features.
— from One Snowy Night Long ago at Oxford by Emily Sarah Holt

Yes, I was there when she crowned him for lord, And to him did submit with one accord.
— from The Life of John Bunyan by Edmund Venables

“I think I make an average grandfather,” he wrote, “but I do wish some one had given me a few lessons as to how to become a mother.”
— from The White Dove by William John Locke

It was noteworthy that since Zoë's return to her native land, Adeline's familiarity had seemed far less acceptable to her than it had been in Paris.
— from 'Gloria Victis!' A Romance by Ossip Schubin

As private secretary to the Governor, I always made it a rule to keep in close touch with every conference then being held regarding the political situation, and in this way I first learned about the Harvey-Watterson meeting which for a few weeks threatened to destroy all the lines of support that had been built up throughout the past months of diligent work and organization.
— from Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him by Joseph P. (Joseph Patrick) Tumulty

Then he said—he did—that he was going to sit down and write her a friendly letter, and tell her where he was at, now that me and him had made up.
— from The Redemption of Kenneth Galt by Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben

The laws of mechanics—why the biggest dinosaurs were only eighty feet long, and they had to be supported by water.
— from The Image and the Likeness by John Scott Campbell

Detroit lay spread out in great panorama, sleeping, spending, each inhabitant flying high or flying low, according to his means and his desires ... all defenseless against the thing that threatened; defenseless save for that frail craft of the air that mounted and mounted on fragile wings until it was but a speck against the illuminated heavens!
— from The Highflyers by Clarence Budington Kelland

Presently one of the assembly caught sight of us, and giving the alarm to the others, they suddenly changed their hilarious notes to cries of alarm, when off they flew, leaving Ara to harangue to empty benches, or rather to vacant boughs; for he, not holding us in dread, did not deem it necessary to decamp.
— from The Wanderers; Or, Adventures in the Wilds of Trinidad and Orinoco by William Henry Giles Kingston

He told me that he regarded the "Livre Mystique" as one of the masterpieces of the French language, and that he saw no fault to find with it.
— from Letters to Madame Hanska, born Countess Rzewuska, afterwards Madame Honoré de Balzac, 1833-1846 by Honoré de Balzac