The day before the next meet a man of diamonds saw Irish Mickey—by chance.
— from Animal Heroes by Ernest Thompson Seton

I have a hazy recollection of suddenly finding myself on deck, still in my hammock; and then, a few minutes later, of being in a boat.
— from A Middy of the King: A Romance of the Old British Navy by Harry Collingwood

Blake, William , poet, painter, and engraver, born in London, where, with rare intervals, he spent his life a mystic from his very boyhood; apprenticed to an engraver, whom he assisted with his drawings; started on original lines of his own as illustrator of books and a painter; devoted his leisure to poetry; wrote "Songs of Innocence," "Marriage of Heaven and Hell," "Gates of Paradise," and "Songs of Experience"; was an intensely religious man of deep spiritual insight, most vivid feeling and imagination; illustrated Young's "Night Thoughts," Blair's "Grave," and the "Book of Job."
— from The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by P. Austin Nuttall

With indescribable feeling I wandered along the carven galleries and ruined rooms, or crept up the antique massive staircases, of this crumbling mansion of departed state, in my boyhood,—deriving from these stolen visits to its interior, mingled with my admiring gaze at its battlemented turret, and rich octagonal window, (which tradition said had lighted the chapel erected by John of Gaunt,) a passion for chivalry
— from The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme by Thomas Cooper

Then, while Lucullus was mashing out delicious strains, I might make Alphonso rush on Smith with his hay-rake, thinking he was Lucullus, and in the fight which would perhaps ensue Smith might blow out Alphonso's brains somehow on the spot by a single discharge, we might assume, of Smith's extraordinary fowling-piece, while Lucullus could be arrested upon the suit of the composer who had a copyright on the tune with which he solaced Amelia.
— from Out of the Hurly-Burly; Or, Life in an Odd Corner by Charles Heber Clark

I say this to my own disadvantage, since I might find it hard to discover anyone else who would risk £2,000 upon such a venture, but I do urge you to weigh my words.”
— from Allan and the Holy Flower by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

I have replied that I was not fool enough to suppose that my favour with the public could last for ever, and was neither shocked nor alarmed to find that it had ceased now, as cease it must one day soon; it might he inconvenient for me in some respects, but I would be quite contented to resign the bargain rather than that more loss should be incurred.
— from The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford by Walter Scott