But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the night; and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet in height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the breach.
— 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

My conjecture had been correct: the strangers had slipped in before us, and they now stood by the vault of the Rochesters, their backs towards us, viewing through the rails the old time-stained marble tomb, where a kneeling angel guarded the remains of Damer de Rochester, slain at Marston Moor in the time of the civil wars, and of Elizabeth, his wife.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

I don’t know the rules of duelling, damnation take them, and I don’t want to, and I look on the matter not as a second and that sort of thing, but as a man, and that’s all about it.”
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

He interferes to recover old debts, distraining the debtor of all he has in the world: half he receives.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

The ring of the bell spoke to him like the voice of a familiar drudge who had been bribed to forsake him; the movements of the doors were revivals of dead days.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

I have omitted a discussion of the many interesting mechanical contrivances for the reduction of deformities due to fracture and dislocation, and also of the splints, pads, and bandages for maintaining these injuries in position.
— from Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times by John Stewart Milne

All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.
— from As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

But if these two systems of ideas and practices do not correspond to distinct historical phases, they have a relation of definite derivation between them.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

In 1877, when the architect Roblin one day discovered her sorting out her “scribbles,” he thought she was attempting to write a book and gravely asked her “when it was to be published.”
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud

I was sho'ly mighty glad when dey 'lowed me to git rid of dem dresses and wear shirts.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration

This very year, that rank outsider, Dark Despair, who, starting at sixty to one, had just been beaten on the post, was the property of his persevering, but unlucky, lordship.
— from The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 1 (of 3) by C. J. (Charles James) Wills

It is desired in this Tribunal of the Holy Office, to learn the conduct in a religious, moral, and political relation, of Dr Don Josef Baldrich, advocate of the Royal Audience, and a resident in the Calle de Jerusalem, at the corner opposite the church of St Augustin, in this city.
— from Records of the Spanish Inquisition, Translated from the Original Manuscripts by Andrew Dickson White

"Dare was more religious on dat day dan you could tire of."
— from The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 by American Anti-Slavery Society