" And on Mrs Musgrove's side, it was, "I make a rule of never interfering in any of my daughter-in-law's concerns, for I know it would not do; but I shall tell you, Miss Anne, because you may be able to set things to rights, that I have no very good opinion of Mrs Charles's nursery-maid: I hear strange stories of her; she is always upon the gad; and from my own knowledge, I can declare, she is such a fine-dressing lady, that she is enough to ruin any servants she comes near.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen

[ A private enemy could not be slain with impunity, since a fine was affixed to homicide; but a man might kill his own slave without any punishment.
— from The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus

You intend to make yourself a complete stranger to me: to live under this roof only as Adèle’s governess; if ever I say a friendly word to you, if ever a friendly feeling inclines you again to me, you will say,—‘That man had nearly made me his mistress: I must be ice and rock to him;’ and ice and rock you will accordingly become.”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

To feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him.
— from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained, but the countenance of his master wore an air of extreme disappointment He urged us, however, to continue our exertions, and the words were hardly uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having caught the toe of my boot in a large ring of iron that lay half buried in the loose earth.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe

He has stood stock still in South Africa for two centuries and a half, and would like to stand still till the end of time, for he has no sympathy with Uitlander notions of progress.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

‘Mrs. Turner also confessed, that Dr. Savories was used in succession, after Forman, and practised many sorceries upon the Earle of Essex his person.
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson

His fall was even greater than that of Belisarius, who, after having obtained many glorious victories over the enemies of his country, is said to have been reduced to such extremity of indigence, that, in his old age, when he was deprived of his eyesight, he sat upon the highway like a common mendicant, imploring the charity of passengers in the piteous exclamation of Date obolum Belisario; that is, “Spare a farthing to your poor old soldier Belisarius.”
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

As for ourselves (for neither are we free from this fault) the same guilt, the same crime, may be objected against us: for it is through our fault, negligence, and avarice, that so many and such shameful corruptions occur in the church (both the temple and the Deity are offered for sale), that such sordidness is introduced, such impiety committed, such wickedness, such a mad gulf of wretchedness and irregularity—these I say arise from all our faults, but more particularly from ours of the University.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

perhaps, since 'tis the adverse event of the most of such schemes that prepares and hardens us for bitterer battles to come, when the ranks are thinning and the drums are silent, and the powder is wasted to the last keg.... To my satisfaction I perceived the gate to be open, and as I came up I saw a flutter of white in the dark of the hall, and a moment later the mist of gold which was Idonia's hair.
— from Idonia: A Romance of Old London by Arthur Frederick Wallis

My fire has blown this vastness, But I strain and flicker trying to escape from it.
— from Precipitations by Evelyn Scott

The carriage was clearly a private carriage; the driver on the box wore livery--at all events, I saw a flash of bright buttons on his coat.
— from The Four Corners of the World by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

In a passage of great boldness Sparrow goes in his venturous faith in the inner Spirit as far as the young Leicestershire preacher did who was starting out, the very year this Introduction was written, to proclaim the message of the inward Light.
— from Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries by Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew) Jones

What am I in such a funk about?
— from Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

You are aware that at the period of the conquest, when the Spaniards built these haciendas, they made them fortresses rather than farmhouses, as they were compelled to defend themselves nearly daily against the aggressions of the Redskins; now, you must know that in such a fortress there is a masked gate, a secret sally port, which, if necessary, the garrison employ, either to receive reinforcements or provisions, or to evacuate the place, should it be too closely invested."
— from The Freebooters: A Story of the Texan War by Gustave Aimard