Now you must know that the Emperor sends his Messengers over all his Lands and Kingdoms and Provinces, to ascertain from his officers if the people are afflicted by any dearth through unfavourable seasons, or storms or locusts, or other like calamity; and from those who have suffered in this way no taxes are exacted for that year; nay more, he causes them to be supplied with corn of his own for food and seed.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

So long as society remains in a simple state, men have occasion for few and simple laws.
— from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III. by Walter Scott

The same year, in a debate in the house of commons on a bill then passing to prevent insurance, Mr. Francis said his own family furnished a striking instance of the dreadful effects of a passion for this ruinous practice.
— from The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 2 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac by William Hone

Ever since nightfall the rock buttress at the pass had been reflecting the lurid glare of the leaping flames as, time and again, unseen but busy hands heaped on fresh fuel and sent the sparks whirling in fiery eddies to the sky.
— from Foes in Ambush by Charles King

To take to a small boat or the catamaran would have been the height of foolishness, for a strong searchlight was being thrown on the scene, and the men would have been picked off by the Spanish gunners at will.
— from Fighting in Cuban Waters; Or, Under Schley on the Brooklyn by Edward Stratemeyer

The nimble circuit of the wheel, The uncertain poise of merchant weal, Heaven of famine, fire and steel
— from New Poems, and Variant Readings by Robert Louis Stevenson

Now again, for the first time since entering the house, Frances remembered what, in her excitement, she had momentarily forgotten—that these must be the revers de la médaille , and her own face fell as she realised the blow that her discovery might cause to her kinsman.
— from The Laurel Walk by Mrs. Molesworth

Perhaps William Pickle was prepared with the warrant for his arrest, but that did not lead him to hesitate or falter for a second.
— from Boys of Oakdale Academy by Morgan Scott

Although he had learned to love Totila, he would far rather have had his old friend for a son-in-law.
— from A Struggle for Rome, v. 1 by Felix Dahn

Question after question was put by these to the witnesses; and from their own mouths they dragged out, by means of a cross-examination as severe as could be well instituted, the following melancholy account: Every slave, whatever his size might be, was found to have only five feet and six inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth, to lie in.
— from The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808), Volume I by Thomas Clarkson