A pretty cambric night-cap, tied with a light-blue ribbon and ornamented with lace, set off the beauties of her face; and a light shawl of Indian muslin, which she had hastily thrown on, veiled rather than concealed her snowy breast, which would have shamed the works of Praxiteles.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Loud and long were the clamours and differences in Cyprus and in Rhodes by reason of their doings; but, ultimately, their friends and kinsfolk, interposing in one and the other place, found means so to adjust matters that, after some exile, Cimon joyfully returned to Cyprus with Iphigenia, whilst Lysimachus on like wise returned to Rhodes with Cassandra, and each lived long and happily with his mistress in his own country."
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

She opened her eyes, and thinking it was mamma she turned round to repay the compliment, and started on having hold of my pego.”
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous

In 1829 Devéria recognised and rendered the characteristic expression of the poet: that bright, upward glance which ten years before had caused the author of the Odes to be compared to a stained-glass archangel.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud

But a milk cart rattled noisily across the distant perspective; a butcher boy, driving with the noble recklessness of a charioteer at Olympic Games, dashed round the corner sitting high above a pair of red wheels.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

roared the captain, now menacing them with a pistol in each hand, just brought to him by the steward.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

My people were not a little anxious regarding me, by the time I returned to Carlow, and the landlord was very much afraid, he said, that the highwaymen had gotten hold of me.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

Wishing to convince him that he was a Calvinist in name only, since he did not believe that Jesus Christ was of the same substance as the Father, he replied that Calvin was only infallible where he spoke ‘ex cathedra’, but I struck him dumb by quoting the words of the Gospel.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

And there was a sting in this reproach that carried home to her; there was just a sufficient edge of truth to wound her.
— from Black Jack by Max Brand

It was all crimson and white, with a fur-edged velvet cap that it really took courage to wear, and fur-topped boots.
— from The Girls of Central High on the Stage; Or, The Play That Took The Prize by Gertrude W. Morrison

Whatever heart-burnings he may have had because certain people refused to come to his balls, he was in Newport to remain.
— from A Modern Chronicle — Complete by Winston Churchill

“They kicked up that row to cover the noise they made breaking through the bulk-heading, so as to get into the hold where the blacks are.”
— from The Black Bar by George Manville Fenn

The fatigue of being in the saddle so many hours compelled our party to remain at the inn much longer than is now practised, and their utmost hope was to be able to reach the convent before the last rays of the sun had ceased to light the glittering peak of Vélan.
— from The Headsman; Or, The Abbaye des Vignerons by James Fenimore Cooper

They shortly, however, returned, and received the charge of the Italian chasseurs.
— from The Camp-fires of Napoleon Comprising The Most Brilliant Achievemnents of the Emperor and His Marshals by Henry C. (Henry Clay) Watson

In order to burn anything up entirely it is absolutely necessary to have the gas called oxygen present, and, as the air you live in contains a very large amount of oxygen, there is more than sufficient in your room to cause the wood of the match to be entirely consumed after it is lighted.
— from A-B-C of Electricity by Wm. H. (William Henry) Meadowcroft

Respecting the charges made by Mr. Danielson, they were unfounded, as he had proven to his entire satisfaction by visiting the colony and finding none of his Indians; and he left a written statement to that effect, which he, Bishop Zundel, now had in his possession.
— from Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Eliza R. (Eliza Roxey) Snow

I had, however, certain strong convictions; and I was on the lookout for every opportunity of realizing those convictions.
— from Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt

These curious conversations are now published; and to the value which they possess as a simple and popular exposition of the chief evidences of Christianity, is added the charm that must ever dwell round the character of one of the interlocutors, and the almost fearful interest attached to every word that, on such a subject, he utters.
— from Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore