Una de las balas, después de herir al segador, había dado en la cuerda que me ligaba al tronco y la había roto.
— from Novelas Cortas by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

He began by trying to steal a lamb from a flock of sheep: but the shepherd saw him and set his dogs on him.
— from Aesop's Fables; a new translation by Aesop

Up, and while I am dressing myself, Mr. Deane of Woolwich came to me, and I did tell him what had happened to him last Saturday in the office, but did encourage him to make no matter of it, for that I did not fear but he would in a little time be master of his enemies as much as they think to master him, and so he did tell me many instances of the abominable dealings of Mr. Pett of Woolwich towards him.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The king said he did not want poems composed about him, and said he did not understand the skald's craft.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

The bachelor was filled with amazement when he heard Sancho's phraseology and style of talk, for though he had read the first part of his master's history he never thought that he could be so droll as he was there described; but now, hearing him talk of a "will and codicil that could not be provoked," instead of "will and codicil that could not be revoked," he believed all he had read of him, and set him down as one of the greatest simpletons of modern times; and he said to himself that two such lunatics as master and man the world had never seen.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

And Jason marked him and struck him down, as a butcher strikes down a mighty strong-horned bull, hard by the temple which the Brygi on the mainland opposite had once built for Artemis.
— from The Argonautica by Rhodius Apollonius

Pity for her aunt and anxiety for herself alternately swayed her determination, and night came, before she had decided upon her conduct.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

I still believe him, in virtue of this carriage, his animal spirits, his delightful voice, his handsome face and figure, and, for aught
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

He had been cautioned to keep his figures for speed within the most moderate limits so as not to prejudice the company's case, but his belief in his own invention mastered his restraint, though as he afterward said, he did his best "to keep the engine down to ten miles an hour."
— from Ten Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century by James Richard Joy

His park was in the neighbourhood; and at that very moment a band of rioters was employed in pillaging his house and shooting his deer.
— from The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 2 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

This a little surprized him, yet not enough to keep him from the Park, where he constantly walked every day an hour or two before dinner; but on his return, he immediately interrogated his wife concerning her new guest; on which she told him, without the least reserve, every circumstance of this transaction; he listened attentively to what she said, but testified neither any dislike or approbation of her conduct in this respect: he said no more to her after she had done speaking; but behaved with the same sullen silence he had always done since her adventure with Lord ——; and as soon as dinner was over, went out to pass the remainder of the day, and best part of the night, according to custom.
— from The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless by Eliza Fowler Haywood

Carrying the muffled form in his arms, he walked up the path leading from the yard gate, into the house, and set her down before the chamber fire as he might a roll of carpet.
— from Harper's Round Table, April 7, 1896 by Various

he asked after awhile, with seeming calm, though he felt as if his words must choke him, and her answer strike him dead.
— from The Laughing Cavalier: The Story of the Ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness

But at last he fell into a snare, and lost all his money, and in a fit of despair he hung himself, and so he died.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

He had trusted her with that which of all things was the most sacred to him, and she had deceived him!
— from The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope

Again she asked herself, as she had done the previous night before going to sleep: "Can it be that I am about to love him?"
— from Notre Coeur; or, A Woman's Pastime: A Novel by Guy de Maupassant