Some had shot deer in hungry wintertime, when they could get no other food, and had been seen in the act by the foresters, but had escaped, thus saving their ears; some had been turned out of their inheritance, that their farms might be added to the King's lands in Sherwood Forest; some had been despoiled by a great baron or a rich abbot or a powerful esquire—all, for one cause or another, had come to Sherwood to escape wrong and oppression.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

Dorothea, on the contrary, found the house and grounds all that she could wish: the dark book-shelves in the long library, the carpets and curtains with colors subdued by time, the curious old maps and bird's-eye views on the walls of the corridor, with here and there an old vase below, had no oppression for her, and seemed more cheerful than the easts and pictures at the Grange, which her uncle had long ago brought home from his travels—they being probably among the ideas he had taken in at one time.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

I heard so much about him, not only from Richard, but from my guardian too, that I was purposely in the room with my work one morning after breakfast when he came.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

I envy nests of sparrows That dot his distant eaves, The wealthy fly upon his pane, The happy, happy leaves That just abroad his window Have summer's leave to be, The earrings of Pizarro Could not obtain for me.
— from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson

It is an herb of as great use with us in these days as any whatsoever, not only for physical but civil purposes.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

The valor of Gennerid, formidable to the adjacent Barbarians, was the firmest bulwark of the Illyrian frontier; and his vigilant care assisted the empire with a reenforcement of ten thousand Huns, who arrived on the confines of Italy, attended by such a convoy of provisions, and such a numerous train of sheep and oxen, as might have been sufficient, not only for the march of an army, but for the settlement of a colony.
— 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

11 111 The armies of the second crusade might have claimed the conquest of Asia; the nobles of France and Germany were animated by the presence of their sovereigns; and both the rank and personal character of Conrad and Louis gave a dignity to their cause, and a discipline to their force, which might be vainly expected from the feudatory chiefs.
— 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

The use of Ships may be instanced by the arms of many families, while a Galley or Lymphad (Fig. 543) occurs in the arms of Campbell, Macdonald, Galbraith, Macfie, and numerous other families, and also in the arms of the town of Oban.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

the offenders not only failed to vouchsafe them any decent answer, but actually jeered at them, going so far as to soil the clothing of lucius postumius, the head of the embassy.
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Cassius Dio Cocceianus

But on the other hand we can point to six which between them covered a whole acre, and no one with the least acquaintance of mediæval municipal topography, no one, for instance, who knows the history of twelfth-century Paris, would allow one-sixth of an acre to a single average house within the walls of a town.
— from The Historic Thames by Hilaire Belloc

Its gradual disappearance allows the natural order free and proper scope.
— from Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society by Havelock Ellis

Nature, on the other hand, seen by him luxuriant and unfettered, as at Martinique, taught him the uselessness of revolt, struggle and effort, the need of fatalism, of resignation.
— from Paul Gauguin, His Life and Art by John Gould Fletcher

When he had made an end of the narrative, the other said: “Behold now, it is truly remarked that every Mandarin has three hands and every soldier a like number of feet, yet it is a saying which is rather to be regarded as manifesting the deep wisdom and discrimination of the speaker than as an actual fact which can be taken advantage of when one is so minded—least of all by so valiant a Commander as the one before me, who has clearly proved that in time of battle he has exactly reversed the position.”
— from The Wallet of Kai Lung by Ernest Bramah

[ 198 ] Birds were not only fates, from whose movements in flight omens were drawn, but also spirits of fertility.
— from Myths of Babylonia and Assyria by Donald A. (Donald Alexander) Mackenzie

The world should have passed the time when local dislikes can be suffered to affect our policy toward the other sections of our race; but even were it otherwise, it is hard to see how twelve thousand British troops, or a royal standard hoisted at Ottawa, can protect a frontier of two thousand miles in length from a nation of five and thirty millions.
— from Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries During 1866-7 by Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir

We encountered pleasant people and unpleasant ones, but, whether their manner was courteous or the reverse, we could nowhere obtain food for love or money.
— from An Explorer's Adventures in Tibet by Arnold Henry Savage Landor

A more unmanageable piece of business than this obstinate old table is not often found.
— from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 697 May 5, 1877 by Various

And so Philammon toiled away with them, carrying food and clothing, helping sick to the hospital, and dead to the burial; cleaning out the infected houses—for the fever was all but perennial in those quarters—and comforting the dying with the good news of forgiveness from above; till the larger number had to return to evening service.
— from Hypatia — or New Foes with an Old Face by Charles Kingsley

The Church of Christ is the true teacher of virtue and guardian of morals; it is that which keeps principles in safety, from which duties are derived, and by proposing most efficacious reasons for an honest life, it bids us not only fly from wicked deeds, but rule the motions of the mind which are contrary to reason when it is not intended to reduce them to action.
— from Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 1, January 1886 by Various