However, I got dressed, darkly wiping my sanguinary face at intervals, and I said, “Can I help you?”
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The death-melly ceases: the first sky-lambent blaze of Insurrection is got damped down; it burns now, if unextinguished, yet flameless, as charred coals do, and not inextinguishable.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

“Oh! noble sir,” said the Queen in great distress, “do not refuse her.
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

The main insurgent general in Samar, Lucban, had surrendered to General Grant in 1902, but the cheaper fellows stayed out much longer, preying upon those who preferred daily toil to cattle-stealing and throat-cutting as a means of livelihood, and continuing the political unrest intermittently in gradually diminishing degree, through 1903.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

JL polo antartico no ne cosi ſtellato como Lo artico ſe vede molto ſtelle picolle congregate inſieme q̃ fanno in guiza de due nebulle poco ſeparate luna de lalt a et vno poco ofuſche in mezo de leq a lle ſtanno due ſtelle molto grandi ne molto relucenti et poco ſe moueno.
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 33, 1519-1522 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Antonio Pigafetta

I have discovered that it goes directly downwards into the bowels of the earth, and in a few hours will take us to the old granitic formation.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

I, George Darling, did it.
— from Peter Pan by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

Various reasons have been suggested, in the course of these papers, to induce a probability that the general government will be better administered than the particular governments; the principal of which reasons are that the extension of the spheres of election will present a greater option, or latitude of choice, to the people; that through the medium of the State legislatures which are select bodies of men, and which are to appoint the members of the national Senate there is reason to expect that this branch will generally be composed with peculiar care and judgment; that these circumstances promise greater knowledge and more extensive information in the national councils, and that they will be less apt to be tainted by the spirit of faction, and more out of the reach of those occasional ill-humors, or temporary prejudices and propensities, which, in smaller societies, frequently contaminate the public councils, beget injustice and oppression of a part of the community, and engender schemes which, though they gratify a momentary inclination or desire, terminate in general distress, dissatisfaction, and disgust.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

Yes, I gwineter do dat till I’s safe, if it’s a year.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

Several correspondents assumed (on what grounds I cannot think) that in the case of this problem the numbers cannot be in consecutive arithmetical progression, so I give Diagram D to show that they were mistaken.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

Firing then became general for a short time, till it gradually died down into single shots fired at intervals.
— from The Relief of Chitral by Younghusband, Francis Edward, Sir

The first days were passed in general debate, during which much negotiation between section leaders and a general alignment of forces were going on in the lobbies.
— from The New Germany by George Young

In grasp “Democracy” does not quite come up to its rather ambitious title; and a moment’s thought will show why.
— from Matthew Arnold by George Saintsbury

552 Not until 1803, when England was in grave danger, did the authorities bestir themselves about it: a trial of Shrapnel’s shell was then ordered, and the Ordnance Committee reported in their favour.
— from Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress by H. W. L. (Henry William Lovett) Hime

( a ) Imperial Guard, Divisions Dumoustier and Roguet, 4 regiments of Voltigeurs, 4 of Tirailleurs, 1 of Chasseurs, 1 of Fusiliers-Chasseurs, 1 bataillon de marche 15,166 present Lepic’s Guard Cavalry 1,189 ” Cavalry attached (Lancers of Berg) 835 ” Guard Artillery, &c. 878 ” ( b ) Navarre, Division Reille, 10th, 21st, 81st Ligne (4 batts.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 4, Dec. 1810-Dec. 1811 Massena's Retreat, Fuentes de Oñoro, Albuera, Tarragona by Charles Oman

"Wh-wh-what is it?" gasped Dan Dalzell, sitting up in his bunk.
— from The Grammar School Boys Snowbound; or, Dick & Co. at Winter Sports by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

little interior gets decorated decently.
— from The Innocents: A Story for Lovers by Sinclair Lewis

And by means of their great feare, oftentimes they fall into great daungerous diseases.
— from Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie Forewarnings, Which Commonly Happen Before the Death of Men: Great Slaughters, and Alterations of Kingdoms by Ludwig Lavater

True, our progress has been slow, and our difficulties have been great; but let me ask, my dear sir, has the slowness of your own journey to this point, and its great difficulty, damped your ardour or induced you to think it scarcely worth your while to go on?”
— from Hunting the Lions by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne