Edward's marriage with Lucy was as firmly determined on, and the time of its taking place remained as absolutely uncertain, as she had concluded it would be;—every thing depended, exactly after her expectation, on his getting that preferment, of which, at present, there seemed not the smallest chance.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The sheep, as by the terms arranged, For pups of wolves their dogs exchanged; Which being done above suspicion, Confirm'd and seal'd by high commission, What time the pups were fully grown, And felt an appetite for prey, And saw the sheepfold left alone, The shepherds all away, They seized the fattest lambs they could, And, choking, dragg'd them to the wood; Of which, by secret means apprised, Their sires, as is surmised, Fell on the hostage guardians of the sheep, And slew them all asleep.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

There are places where brothels of young men are kept for the pleasure of women; where the wives go to war as well as the husbands, and not only share in the dangers of battle, but, moreover, in the honours of command.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Other taunts followed, added mockings stung him, and he exclaimed— “I tell ye again, you pack of unmannerly curs, I am the Prince of Wales!
— from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

The customs of Rhamanta, or romantic divination, by which lovers and sweethearts seek to pierce the future, are many and curious, in all parts of Wales.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

He read as though he were swimming in the sea among broken pieces of wreckage, and in his desire to save his life was eagerly grasping one piece after another.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Of enthusiasm the influence is irregular and transient: many were detained at home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics.
— 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

On ascending the throne, King Pepin, who wanted to pacify the Church, endeavoured as far as possible to obliterate the recollection of the wrongs of which his father had been guilty towards her; he ordered the dîmes and the nones (tenth and ninth denier levied on the value of lands) to be placed to the account of the possessors of each ecclesiastical domain, on their under-taking to repair the buildings (churches, châteaux, abbeys, and presbyteries), and to restore to the owners the properties on which they held mortgages.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

Hence arose another evil, which produced no little uneasiness to the poor pedagogue, of whom she maintained so constant a jealousy, that he durst hardly speak to one woman in the parish; for the least degree of civility, or even correspondence, with any female, was sure to bring his wife upon her back, and his own.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

For some time he lingered in this situation, without going upwards or downwards, floating like a wisp of straw at the turning of the tide, until he could no longer amuse the person of whom he had hired his coach-horses, or postpone the other demands, which multiplied upon him every day.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

"You've got plenty of wind at your place, Lee, haven't you?"
— from The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men by Francis Rolt-Wheeler

John S. Adams 25 Mars, the Planet of War .
— from St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 No 1, Nov 1877 by Various

Chelmsford , one of the youngest of the Essex Boroughs, and almost a suburb of Greater London by means of the Great Eastern Railway, was, when I first knew it, a dignified county town, the leading people of which considered a second post from London as a daily nuisance, and had no taste for what is practically too near the rush and roar of modern life.
— from Some of Our East Coast Towns by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie

Rodney expressed a fear that the four ships in the harbour would slip out and attack our possessions, or, which had been even worse, might fall on him at St. Eustatius.
— from Rodney by David Hannay

It includes a half-length bust, depicting the dramatist on the point of writing.
— from Bacon is Shake-Speare Together with a Reprint of Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies by Durning-Lawrence, Edwin, Sir

Mr. Pennant says still more, for he has known that, in flinging a fish of this kind just caught into a pail of water, it fixed itself so firmly to the bottom, that, on taking it by the tail, the pail was lifted up, though it contained several gallons of water.
— from Glimpses of Ocean Life; Or, Rock-Pools and the Lessons they Teach by John Harper

The low thatched roof—the bright square-paned little windows—the porch overgrown with clematis, jessamine, and honeysuckle—the garden, where gooseberry bushes and stately hollyhocks grow side by side.
— from Ellen Middleton—A Tale by Georgiana Fullerton

Dr. Huss desired to be excused from a personal appearance, and was so greatly favoured in Bohemia, that king Winceslaus, the queen, the nobility, and the university, desired the pope to dispense with such an appearance; as also that he would not suffer the kingdom of Bohemia to lie under the accusation of heresy, but permit them to preach the gospel with freedom in their places of worship.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

The Freethinker denounces this doctrine as infamous beyond the power of words to express.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12) Dresden Edition—Miscellany by Robert Green Ingersoll

Break up 1 lb. of loaf sugar into small particles, let it dissolve in a pan with ½ pint of water and 2 spoonfuls of lemon-juice; skim and boil to the ball, add pieces of lemon peel tied together with a string, boil until a sample is brittle; take out the lemon peel, pour out the sugar on an oiled slab, taking care to distribute it so that the whole mass cools at the same time.
— from The Bread and Biscuit Baker's and Sugar-Boiler's Assistant Including a Large Variety of Modern Recipes by Robert Wells