Those honors still attracted the vain ambition of the Romans; and the emperors themselves, though invested for life with the powers of the consul ship, frequently aspired to the title of that annual dignity, which they condescended to share with the most illustrious of their fellow-citizens.
— 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

A woman would sometimes require some proof of power or courage at her suitor's hands; thus Gywritha, like the famous lady who weds Harold Fairhair, required her husband Siwar to be over-king of the whole land.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Mademoiselle Gillenormand, like a sage and elderly person, contrived to spare the fine linen, while allowing the grandfather to think that he was obeyed.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

And now as a band of reapers mow swathes of wheat or barley upon a rich man's land, and the sheaves fall thick before them, even so did the Trojans and Achaeans fall upon one another; they were in no mood for yielding but fought like wolves, and neither side got the better of the other.
— from The Iliad by Homer

"Oh, indeed!" said Annie, with a funny look, as Meg slipped the note into her pocket, as a sort of talisman against envy, vanity, and false pride; for the few loving words had done her good, and the flowers cheered her up by their beauty.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

This gleam of hope acquired fresh life, when he saw Quasimodo, Coppenole, and the deafening escort of the pope of the procession of fools quit the hall amid great uproar.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Mu rag túbig ang álak nga naglásaw sa kumbira, Wine flowed like water at the party.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

It was Captain Osborne that cut down the French lancer who had speared the ensign.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Fantine laughed with the rest.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

And now another power makes itself felt, the influence of the feudal landholders, whose interests had suffered from the prolonged predominance of the military party.
— from Kashmir, described by Sir Francis Younghusband, painted by Major E. Molyneux by Younghusband, Francis Edward, Sir

Through October and until the first snow in late November, they toiled, fitting and provisioning the place for winter; the family living with Mr. McDonald, while their servants remained at the farm.
— from Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant by Mathew Joseph Holt

Beginning with the usual formality, he said: “I am obliged to differ from nearly every sentiment expressed by the Earl of Eglington, the member for Levizes, who has just taken his seat.”
— from The Weavers: a tale of England and Egypt of fifty years ago - Complete by Gilbert Parker

—This spectroscope can also be used on a support for laboratory work.
— from Astronomical Instruments and Accessories by William Gaertner and Company

Her propeller-shaft was 160 feet long, with a screw propeller at one end 24 feet in diameter.
— from Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 by Various

I remember, this evening, we tried most perseveringly to drink our tea by a feeble light, which appeared to be a signal for the collection of insects far and near, who, by their numbers and the fierceness of their attacks, made it impossible to bring our cups to our mouths without stopping to brush away the fierce and greedy hordes of mosquitoes.
— from Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

They rebuilt the old standard-gauge French lines which the Germans had destroyed and carried the new roads up to within a mile of the then front lines in the Hindenburg trenches.
— from Fighting the Boche Underground by H. D. (Harry Davis) Trounce