It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declamations of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red-hot beds, and with all the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage executioners, could inflict upon the human body.
— 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

Feuds multiplied, and the name of each clan became the watchword of alarm or defiance to its neighbour: castles were assaulted, and their inmates, as 555 at Sheogarh and Lawa, put to the sword; the Meras and Bhils descended from their hills, or emerged from their forests, and planted ambuscades for the traveller or merchant, whom they robbed or carried to their retreats, where they languished in durance till ransomed.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

That as the calamity had originated entirely from the action of the kidnapper, exclusive of dealing with the kidnapper according to law, the rest need not be interfered with, and so on.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao

We should early form the habit of erasing from the mind all disagreeable, unhealthy, death-dealing thoughts.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Again when Shakespeare treats of the history of England from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, it is wonderful how careful he is to have his facts perfectly right—indeed he follows Holinshed with curious fidelity.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde

I am indebted to many friends and acquaintances for much information which has been useful to me in writing this book; to Sir John Evans whose works are invaluable to all students of ancient stone and bronze implements; to Dr. Cox whose little book on How to Write the History of a Parish is a sure and certain guide to local historians; to Mr. St. John Hope and Mr. Fallow for much information contained in their valuable monograph on Old Church Plate ; to the late Dr. Stevens, of Reading; to Mr. Shrubsole of the same town; to Mr. Gibbins, the author of The Industrial History of England , for the use of an illustration from his book; to Mr. Melville, Mr. P.J. Colson, and the Rev. W. Marshall for their photographic aid; and to many other authors who are only known to me by their valuable works.
— from English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

This charge of black magic recurs all through the history of Europe from the earliest times.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

He seemed to meditate on something horrible, and She gave up all hopes of escaping from the Sepulchre with life.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

The young lady turned and sprang at the word, followed by both her sisters; and for some moments nothing but a hubbub of exclamations filled the air.
— from Queechy, Volume II by Susan Warner

Froude, J. A. A History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth.
— from The History of the British Post Office by Joseph Clarence Hemmeon

Wallenstein was so pleased with this proof of his zeal, that he even lent him his own equipage for the journey.
— from The Thirty Years War — Complete by Friedrich Schiller

He had already made about a score of people totally blind when he was called in to attend a lady of quality; and when this lady's sight was destroyed, her relatives invited the quack either to have his own eyes forcibly treated with his ointment, or to clear out of the country.
— from A Drake by George! by John Trevena

The so-called Pyx House in Westminster Abbey, a low narrow solemn-looking vaulted room with a row of massive pillars in the centre, and a single archway in the south transept, are all that are left of the noble sanctuary built under the direction of the last of the Saxon kings, but these relics, with a few conventual buildings, suffice to connect with Anglo-Saxon times a church that is perhaps more intimately associated than any other with the history of England from the close of the 11th to the middle of the 16th century, it having been added to under every successive occupant of the throne.
— from Architecture by N. D'Anvers

He could not but reflect thankfully on his own escape from the misfortune which had befallen the temporary inmate of his dwelling.
— from The Broken Font: A Story of the Civil War, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Moyle Sherer

MARKHAM'S (Mrs.) History of England, From the First Invasion by the Romans, down to the fourteenth year of Queen Victoria's Reign.
— from Travels in Central Asia Being the Account of a Journey from Teheran Across the Turkoman Desert on the Eastern Shore of the Caspian to Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand by Ármin Vámbéry

—'I have noticed,' I said, 'but I believe that whatever opinion one may entertain, or whatever views one may express, in the innermost shrine of the heart of every Frenchman there is treasured a phrase, "La France: c'est le pays de mon cœur."
— from A Fantasy of Far Japan; Or, Summer Dream Dialogues by Kencho Suematsu

The Weathercock was what is called "used up;" and that quality would certainly have made him interesting in the eyes of the Cucumber if she had known it; but she had only eyes for the Yard Cock, who had now actually come into her own yard.
— from What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen