‘On little octagon tables candles burned in glass globes; clumps of stiff-leaved plants separated sets of cosy wicker chairs; and between the pairs of columns, whose reddish shafts caught in a long row the sheen from the tall windows, the night, glittering and sombre, seemed to hang like a splendid drapery.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

He ravaged Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage, made himself master of the great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, (which seemed to have surrendered without resistance,) and carried his victorious arms beyond the Tigris.
— 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

The younger generation, conscious of strength and tumultuous, have done with knocking at the door; they have burst in and seated themselves in our seats.
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

When the moment arrived they assaulted on the first day the Athenian lines, and upon a small force of heavy infantry and horse sallying out against them by certain gates, cut off some of the former and routed and pursued them to the lines, where, as the entrance was narrow, the Athenians lost seventy horses and some few of the heavy infantry.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

As we rolled into Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape.
— from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

He whom no mighty demon, no, Nor heavenly God can overthrow, See, Guha, how he lies, alas, [pg 194] With Sítá couched on gathered grass.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The iron gates clanked open; she entered.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. The Man Of Property by John Galsworthy

Taught from their infancy, that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects by Mary Wollstonecraft

She proposed that they should take Ellen with them to Washington, and keep her till they had a good chance of sending her, with friends, to Brooklyn.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. (Harriet Ann) Jacobs

After what manner they think this last sun shall perish, my author knows not; but their number of this fourth change agrees with the great conjunction of stars which eight hundred and odd years ago, as astrologers suppose, produced great alterations and novelties in the world.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

His policy at that time was to make large general confessions of sin, and to praise and compliment her, with a view of enlisting sympathy.
— from Lady Byron Vindicated A history of the Byron controversy from its beginning in 1816 to the present time by Harriet Beecher Stowe

But when they saw that they were carried out of the prison vnto the sea, they verelie beleeued that it was to drowne them therein; for the which (having a newe confessed themselues, and commended themselues vnto God) they did animate one another with the representation of the reward which was prepared for them: but when they came vnto the barre whereas they should imbarke themselues, vppon a suddaine the sea beganne to waxe verie loftie and troublesome, that it seemed almost a myracle, and it increased in such sort that the souldiers and mariners said, that neuer before they had seene the like torment, the which endured the space of tenne dayes: the which was the occasion that they did not imbarke themselues, and that the generall did change his pretence, and determined that they shoulde be carried by lande vnto the great cittie of Sancheo-Fu, the which was presently put in vre: they were manie dayes on this iourney, with fiftie souldiers that did guarde them: in the which they sawe so manie curious thinges, and of so great riches, that they iudged it to bee the best countrie in all the world.
— from The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof, Volume 2 (of 2) by Juan González de Mendoza

A great crowd of students had now collected and more were coming from every direction.
— from Over the Line by Harold M. (Harold Morrow) Sherman

"Haven't they a good chance of striking the channel?"
— from The Lost Explorers: A Story of the Trackless Desert by Alexander MacDonald

I wish I could as merry be As when I set out this world to see, Like a boat filled with good companie, On some gay voyage sent.
— from The Desultory Man Collection of Ancient and Modern British Novels and Romances. Vol. CXLVII. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

GREGORY, CHARLES O. Social change and labor law.
— from U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1966 July - December by Library of Congress. Copyright Office

When the great cycle of snow years, called the Glacial Period, was nearly complete in California, the ice-mantle, wasting from season to season faster than it was renewed, began to withdraw from the lowlands and gradually became shallower everywhere.
— from The Yosemite by John Muir

Mr. Grant counted out six dollars and eighty cents.
— from Dan, the Newsboy by Alger, Horatio, Jr.

These ships he used when he needed them; and also on land Necos engaged battle at Magdolos with the Syrians, and conquered them; and after this he took Cadytis, which is a great city of Syria: and the dress which he wore when he made these conquests he dedicated to Apollo, sending it to Branchidai of the Milesians.
— from The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 by Herodotus

The work of the Mine Accidents Division was taken up primarily to reduce the number of mine accidents, and to increase the general conditions of safety in mining.
— from Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 Federal Investigations of Mine Accidents, Structural Materials and Fuels. Paper No. 1171 by Herbert M. (Herbert Michael) Wilson