Between her and the port lay the great flat reef on which so many good ships have from time to time suffered, and, with the wind blowing from its present quarter, it would be quite impossible that she should fetch the entrance of the harbour.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker

They had no waterproofs nor rubbers, of course; over their shoulders they wore gunnysacks—simply conductors for rivers of water; some of the volume reached the ground; the rest soaked in on the way.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

Dantès rose and looked forward, when he saw rise within a hundred yards of him the black and frowning rock on which stands the Château d’If.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

But when either the father died, and left his next heir, for want of age, wisdom, courage, or any other qualities, less fit for rule; or where several families met, and consented to continue together; there, it is not to be doubted, but they used their natural freedom, to set up him, whom they judged the ablest, and most likely, to rule well over them.
— from Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

Long in the field of words we may contend, Reproach is infinite, and knows no end, Arm'd or with truth or falsehood, right or wrong; So voluble a weapon is the tongue;
— from The Iliad by Homer

Fraught with this intelligence, the rancorous understrapper hied her home to the jeweller's wife, and made a faithful recital of what she had seen, communicating at the same time her own conjectures on that subject.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

But he did not stir until King Magnus himself was south in Denmark, when Sveinke and the king met, and made a full reconciliation; on which Sveinke returned home to his house and estates, and was afterwards King Magnus's best and trustiest friend, who strengthened his kingdom on the eastern border; and their friendship continued as long as they lived.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

`First, sin thou wost this toun hath al this werre For ravisshing of wommen so by might, It sholde not be suffred me to erre, As it stant now, ne doon so gret unright.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer

Gauffecourt explained to me the causes of her dislike: “The first,” said he, “is her friendship for Rameau, of whom she is the declared panegyrist, and who will not suffer a competitor; the next is an original sin, which ruins you in her estimation, and which she will never forgive; you are a Genevese.”
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Baron’s gloomy face rippled over with sudden sunshine.
— from My Lady Nobody: A Novel by Maarten Maartens

First the men, with hoarse, quavering approach and final roar of wild sweetness; then Margaret and the Boy in duet, and finally Margaret alone, with a few bashful chords on the fiddle, feeling their way as accompaniment.
— from A Voice in the Wilderness by Grace Livingston Hill

That it is appreciated is shown by the fact that at Christmas, at this house, with its staff of Superintendent, cook, parlourmaid, housemaid and "tweeny," with one chauffeuse, there were forty relations of wounded staying.
— from The Sword of Deborah: First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France by F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson) Jesse

I do not know that she made a formal renunciation of what she had lately embraced, but she desired no priestly ministrations, and fell back upon her Bible, and the truths she had accepted in former days.
— from Recollections of a Long Life by John Stoughton

The food remaining over was set aside, and each person might help himself to it as he had need.
— from French Pathfinders in North America by William Henry Johnson

No doubt she was charming, as a girl should be, but whether she 207 encouraged the youthful baker and then betrayed him with false rôle , or whether she “consisted” throughout,—as our cousins across the water express it,—is known to their manes only.
— from Tales from the Telling-House by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

Good-bye." The sound of the closing of the door roused Echo to a full realization of what she had done.
— from The Round-Up: A Romance of Arizona; Novelized from Edmund Day's Melodrama by Marion Mills Miller