All night the little shell with ceaseless dip And pause, and rise and dip again, had borne The trackless trade winds.
— from The Rose of Dawn: A Tale of the South Sea by Helen Hay Whitney

Men will always be fallible, and perhaps circumstances did appear at the time a little strong—— Suffice it to say, that after hanging four minutes (as the spectators were pleased to compute it,—a man that is being strangled, I know from experience, has altogether a different measure of time from his friends who are breathing leisurely about him,—I suppose the minutes lengthen as time approaches eternity, in the same manner as the miles get longer as you travel northward),—after hanging four minutes, according to the best calculation of the bystanders, a reprieve came, and I was CUT DOWN— Really I am ashamed of deforming your pages with these technical phrases—if I knew how to express my meaning shorter— But to proceed.—My first care after I had been brought to myself by the usual methods (those methods that are so interesting to the operator and his assistants, who are pretty numerous on such occasions,—but which no patient was ever desirous of undergoing a second time for the benefit of science), my first care was to provide myself with an enormous stock or cravat to hide the place—you understand me; my next care was to procure a residence as distant as possible from that part of the country where I had suffered.
— from The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Charles Lamb

As what they deemed their most valuable possessions were thus converted to ashes before their eyes, the patriarch again rose, and declared an anathema against any one who should dare to oppose this order of the czar.
— from Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 08 (of 15), Russian by Charles Morris

Lucius Scipio received the surname of Asiaticus, and the two brothers returned to Rome; but they had been too generous and merciful to the conquered to suit the grasping spirit that had begun to prevail at Rome, and directly after his triumph Lucius was accused of having taken to himself an undue share of the spoil.
— from Young Folks' History of Rome by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

The snow falls in small particles, and remains as dry as dust.
— from Happy Days for Boys and Girls by Various

Even the saints were rigged out, especially St. Anthony, at Valencia, whose laced costume, periwig and ruffles are described as "glorious." Fig.
— from History of Lace by Palliser, Bury, Mrs.

After watching their gambols for some time, we threw a pebble into the pool, when they instantly dived and disappeared, only to emerge in a few seconds near a large boulder further up the stream, behind which, and cunningly concealed beneath the overhanging bank, was their hole, into which they popped as readily as does an alarmed mouse into a wall crevice.
— from Nether Lochaber The Natural History, Legends, and Folk-lore of the West Highlands by Stewart, Alexander, Rev.

They say, wherever water is found, some or other species of these minute wonders may be met with; standing pools, and rivers, and ditches all have them; and some particularly beautiful are to be found in bog water; so with, I am afraid you will think, a not very commendable impatience, I am pointing my steps towards a bog that I know—in the wish to get some of the best first."
— from The Old Helmet, Volume II by Susan Warner

He was proclaimed a rebel and dacoit and every chief in the Shan States was desired to treat him as an outlaw.
— from The Pacification of Burma by C. H. T. (Charles Haukes Todd) Crosthwaite

Fourth day, walk of some twenty-seven miles through unknown regions baptizing children at different places; and reaching, after divers adventures, a very hospitable resting-place at 8 p.m. in the dark.
— from Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge