137 The old man and his wife had walked out—— Every thing was still and hush as midnight about the house—— There was not so much as a duck or a duckling about the yard—— ——When the fair Beguine came in to see me.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Whereupon the multitude, as it is usual with them, supposed that the first days of those that enter upon such governments declare the intentions of those that accept them; and so by how much Archelaus spake the more gently and civilly to them, by so much did they more highly commend him, and made application to him for the grant of what they desired.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

“Did you love him as much as that?” he stammered.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

He told me that M. Dona had written to him about me, and that he would be delighted to do anything in his power for me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The idea of this conversion set Rawdon into roars of laughter: you might have heard the explosion through the hotel at midnight, and the haw-haws of the great dragoon's voice.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Now this speech softened the king towards himself as much as towards his foe.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Who was she to have a man according to her own desire?
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

He answers me again that he agrees to it, but thinks the King will not let him go off: He tells me he lacks now my Lord Orrery to solicit it for him, who is very great with the King.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

I hate the word As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee: Have at thee, coward.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

I perfectly doat on her, and my Affection to her gives me all the Anxieties imaginable but that of Jealousy.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

His arrangements made, as Teotlili had correctly reported, Cortes no sooner saw the aqueduct destroyed, than he sent his divisions to their posts, and caused the brigantines to be floated.
— from Roger the Bold: A Tale of the Conquest of Mexico by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton

Now the difference between the days in his uncle's house at Mergatroyd and those he had spent in lodgings at Nottingham did not differ radically.
— from The Pennycomequicks, Volume 2 (of 3) by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

At Beauport, an untiring general, who for a hundred days had snatched sleep, booted and spurred, and in the ebb of a losing game, longed for his adored Candiac, grieved for a beloved daughter's death, sent cheerful messages to his aged mother and to his wife, and by the deeper protests of his love foreshadowed his own doom.
— from The Seats of the Mighty, Volume 5 by Gilbert Parker

"Well, yo see," was the reply, "th' hens have had a meetin' and they have coom to th' conclusion that they connot lay ony bigger than thur at sixteen for a shillin!"
— from Lancashire Humour by Thomas Newbigging

There happened to be several trains of horses and mules in town, so I purchased about a dozen horses and mules at two hundred dollars a head, on account of the Quartermaster's Department, and we had them kept under guard in the quartermaster's corral.
— from Project Gutenberg Edition of The Memoirs of Four Civil War Generals by John Alexander Logan

Round this fire we sat and talked and smoked until bedtime, hoping against hope for a few more days of sunshine; but when we turned in, the wind was howling and moaning along the hill-side in a very ominous and unpleasant manner.
— from Three in Norway, by Two of Them by Walter J. Clutterbuck

There is nothing remarkable in Mr. Mathew’s manner, except that it is exceedingly simple, hearty, and manly, and that he does not wear the downcast, demure look which, I know not why, certainly characterises the chief part of the gentlemen of his professio
— from The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh; and the Irish Sketch Book by William Makepeace Thackeray

But he was at heart a mystic: and, though he had lost his belief, yet no ideas could be closer to his own than those of his sister.
— from Jean-Christophe in Paris: The Market-Place, Antoinette, the House by Romain Rolland

Jim hesitated a minute, and then he brought his clenched fist down on his knee.
— from The Frontier Boys in the Sierras; Or, The Lost Mine by Wyn Roosevelt

Sir Horace came downstairs in his pyjamas a few minutes ago to say as he'd recollected about the flues of the furnace in the cellar being big enough to hold a man, and then him and Mr. Narkom went below to have a look at it."
— from Cleek, the Master Detective by Thomas W. Hanshew