They all looked round, and saw a curve of black cavalry come sweeping over the top of the hill with all the energy of Attila.
— from The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

I've called to say that I am ready, as soon as custom will permit, to give you my name in return for your devotion and what you lost by it in thinking too little of yourself and too much of me; to say that you can fix the day or month, with my full consent, whenever in your opinion it would be seemly: you know more of these things than I.”
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

"The much-discussed meeting of the Zoological Institute, convened to hear the report of the Committee of Investigation sent out last year to South America to test the assertions made by Professor Challenger as to the continued existence of prehistoric life upon that Continent, was held last night in the greater Queen's Hall, and it is safe to say that it is likely to be a red letter date in the history of Science, for the proceedings were of so remarkable and sensational a character that no one present is ever likely to forget them."
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

Where roads and streets are cut through, perpendicular banks are left and stand as well as if composed of stone.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

If I have not succeeded in my endeavours to unfold the mysteries of fraud, to instruct the ignorant, and entertain the vacant; if I have failed in my attempts to subject folly to ridicule, and vice to indignation; to rouse the spirit of mirth, wake the soul of compassion, and touch the secret springs that move the heart; I have, at least, adorned virtue with honour and applause, branded iniquity with reproach and shame, and carefully avoided every hint or expression which could give umbrage to the most delicate reader—circumstances which (whatever may be my fate with the public) will with you always operate in favour of, Dear sir, your very affectionate friend and servant, THE AUTHOR.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

They awakened a tender emotion in me; for my heart was softened by my return, and such a change had come to pass, that I felt like one who was toiling home barefoot from distant travel, and whose wanderings had lasted many years.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

If you will know how to interpret them, read Artemidorus, Sambucus and Cardan; but how to help them, [3399] I must refer you to a more convenient place.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

She wanted to run, and sing, and cry out for very wildness and poignancy, but she could not run and sing and cry out in such a way as to cry out the deep things in her heart, so she was still, and almost sad with loneliness.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

The dwellings of the English residents are spacious and comfortable and commodiously furnished, and surely it must be an odd sight to see half a dozen guests come filing into such a place and dumping blankets and pillows here and there and everywhere.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

It was, however, a spectacle which gave the defenders on the wall great pleasure and entertainment, and when they had gazed their fill at what resembled a splendid and costly pageant in procession, they hurled stones from their engines, and, shooting their arrows, challenged the barbarians to fight for the wall.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian

Marry, that was a slap on the mouth to my young knight, who grew as red as scarlet, and cast down his eyes upon his boots, while M. Joel began to demonstrate the magic blood-letting to them as follows— "See here, young knight, and you, fair virgin, here are two little boxes of white ivory, of the same size and weight; and see, within each of them is suspended a little magnet, both cut from the one loadstone, and round in a circle are all the letters of the alphabet.
— from Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania — Volume 2 by Wilhelm Meinhold

in America reputation and success are coupled with such secluded habits and such insatiable work that the personal influence of our literary and scientific men can not be known or estimated.
— from The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, March 1884, No. 6 by Chautauqua Institution

Then down upon her knees Fell the old woman by the sleeping knight, And from his hand she drew with fingers light The wondrous ring, and scarce again could rise Ere 'neath the trembling Queen's bewildered eyes
— from A Selection from the Poems of William Morris by William Morris

The early settlers, men, women, and children, pursued their toilsome march over this rough country, picking their way through morasses, wading through rivers and streams, and climbing mountains; driving their cattle, sheep, and swine before them.
— from Woman on the American Frontier A Valuable and Authentic History of the Heroism, Adventures, Privations, Captivities, Trials, and Noble Lives and Deaths of the "Pioneer Mothers of the Republic" by William Worthington Fowler

You'd better turn from the railroad and strike across country.
— from Motor Matt's Daring Rescue; or, The Strange Case of Helen Brady by Stanley R. Matthews

At any rate he sends the obedient consuls and his attendant senators over to Dyrrachium in Illyria with a part of his army, and follows with the remainder as soon as Cæsar is at his heels.
— from The Commentaries of Cæsar by Anthony Trollope

One of them, who had drunk too deep, not noticing that she was startled and imagining that she was a fit subject for rough gallantry, pursued her as she tried to escape, but Blake with a quick movement reached a switch and cut off the light.
— from Blake's Burden by Harold Bindloss

Remorse and shame almost choked her utterance.
— from Linnet: A Romance by Grant Allen

" The two women rocked and sewed and crocheted in silence for two or three minutes.
— from The Wind in the Rose-Bush, and Other Stories of the Supernatural by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

Tom and me was to sleep in the same room and bed; so, being tired, we bid good-night and went up to bed right after supper, and clumb out of the window and down the lightning-rod, and shoved for the town; for I didn't believe anybody was going to give the king and the duke a hint, and so if I didn't hurry up and give them one they'd get into trouble sure.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 31 to 35 by Mark Twain