[70] In dealing with Chaucer's masterpiece, the reader is urged to read widely at first, for the simple pleasure of the stories, and to remember that poetry and romance are more interesting and important than Middle English.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

When their parents are sufficiently rich to pay a ransom, a messenger is sent to negotiate; the prisoner is hostage for the security of the messenger; should the ransom be refused, the prisoner is irrevocably lost.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

Carefully counting the money and rolling it out, dollar by dollar, he would look me in the face, as if he would search my heart as well as my pocket, and reproachfully ask me, “ Is that all ?”—implying that I had, perhaps, kept back part of my wages; or, if not so, the demand was made, possibly, to make me feel, that, after all, I was an “unprofitable servant.”
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

While both armies were preparing for action, General Scott, mistaking an oblique march of an American column for a retreat, left his position, and repassed a morass in his rear.
— from American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2) or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature by Nathaniel Parker Willis

Representative papers are read and marked in which no failures are found.
— from A Class Room Logic Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of Teaching by George Hastings McNair

In the interior it was for the most part a level, heavily forested, sandy, swampy country in its southern portions, and rough and mountainous in the northern portions.
— from The Quaker Colonies: A Chronicle of the Proprietors of the Delaware by Sydney George Fisher

In Lusatia the Brethren had centres of work at Herrnhut, Niesky and Kleinwelke; in Silesia, at Gnadenfrei, Gnadenberg, Gnadenfeld and Neusalz; in Pomerania, at Rügen and Mecklenburg; in East Prussia, at Danzig, Königsberg and Elbing; in Thuringia, at Neudietendorf; in the Palatinate and the Wetterau; at Neuwied; in Brandenburg, at Berlin and Potsdam; in Denmark, at Christiansfeld, Schleswig, Fühnen, and Copenhagen; in Norway, at Christiana, Drammen and Bergen; in Sweden, at Stockholm and Gothenburg; in Switzerland, at Basel, Bern, Zürich and Montmirail; and finally, in Livonia and Esthonia, they employed about a hundred preachers and ministered to about six thousand souls.
— from A History of the Moravian Church by J. E. (Joseph Edmund) Hutton

Under ordinary circumstances, this dreadful event would have damped the spirits of the company; as it was, it did but deepen the gloomy excitement which already had possession of all present, and raise a more intense expectation of the visit so publicly announced by The Masque.
— from Memorials and Other Papers — Volume 2 by Thomas De Quincey

It was the fear that, in this unsexing moment of hysteria, she might lose all control, pitch all reserve and modesty into the flood-tide of her emotions, and lose him for ever in the unnatural whirlwind of her passion.
— from Sally Bishop: A Romance by E. Temple (Ernest Temple) Thurston

The L. of C. consists essentially of one or more Advanced Bases close in rear of the Army, a Railhead (beyond which railway service is not organized), various intermediate Sections , or Posts , as required, and, most important of all, the Base , at the end farthest from the front, and nearest home.
— from Organization: How Armies are Formed for War by Hubert Foster

Curiosity and triumph, pity and rejoicing, all merged into one great impulse and rose in a passion of hero-worship.
— from The Thrall of Leif the Lucky: A Story of Viking Days by Ottilie A. (Ottilia Adelina) Liljencrantz

Her master has written a statement which has been forwarded to me; and which, if correct, and I see no reason to doubt it, proves that further efforts are required to put down piracy and robbery and murder in these seas; and by God they shall not be wanting as long as I’m ruler here.”
— from The Pirate of the Mediterranean: A Tale of the Sea by William Henry Giles Kingston