But the night following, having contrived to send the watchman of another trifling errand, which, as I take it, was to an apothecary's for a plaister for the maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or some other such errand that might secure his staying some time; in that time he conveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and left the nurse and the watchman to bury the poor wench—that is, throw her into the cart—and take care of the house.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

Having 99 made his way into this stall, which he could not have done if the man had been at the door, the noise he was obliged to make being such as would have alarmed the watchman,—I say, having made his way into this stall, he sat still till the watchman returned with the nurse, and all the next day also; but the night following, having contrived to send the watchman of another trifling errand (which, as I take it, was to an apothecary's for a plaster for the maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or some other such errand that might secure his staying some time), in that time he conveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and left the nurse and the watchman to bury the poor wench, that is, throw her into the cart, and take care of the house.
— from History of the Plague in London by Daniel Defoe

They got them up in pieces, but she was off the wind, and when the boat dropped back into the haze behind her the mate fell over on the hatch and lay there until somebody poured water on to him.
— from In the Misty Seas: A Story of the Sealers of Behring Strait by Harold Bindloss

The settlers who were warned in time cleared their families out of their houses, and left their dwellings and furniture to their fate.
— from Two Years in Oregon by Wallis Nash

And as men may run from the chamber of a murdered corpse, the three ran forth out of the house and left their quarrel behind them undecided.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 19 by Robert Louis Stevenson