Thence to the Privy Seal to see how things went there, and I find that Mr. Baron had by a severe warrant from the King got possession of the office from his brother Bickerstaffe, which is very strange, and much to our admiration, it being against all open justice.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

" Inferno: Canto XXX 'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged, For Semele, against the Theban blood, As she already more than once had shown, So reft of reason Athamas became, That, seeing his own wife with children twain Walking encumbered upon either hand, He cried: "Spread out the nets, that I may take The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;" And then extended his unpitying claws, Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus, And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock; And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;-- And at the time when fortune downward hurled The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared, So that the king was with his kingdom crushed, Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive, When lifeless she beheld Polyxena,
— from Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell by Dante Alighieri

For the hill split, and from its crest a sudden and mighty torrent of loud-roaring waters seemed to burst; so that its flying mass, shooting furiously down, poured over the fields below, and enveloped whatsoever it struck upon, and at its onset the delvers were dislodged, flung down their mattocks, and fled divers ways; thinking that if they strove any longer to carry through their enterprise they would be caught in the eddies of the water that was rushing down.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

Sometimes a momentary tint of stormy light may invest a homely or too familiar scene with a character which might well have been drawn from the deep places of the imagination.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

She seldom ate more than once a day, excepting on the greater festivals, or some urgent occasion.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

Cooking is done outside the house, and very few take rest inside after hard work, for their compounds are shady and breezy, and they may be seen basking in the sun after midnight toil, or drying [ 283 ] the nets or fish.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

In these compromises no one is deceived—either he who takes or he who receives—the minds of both are perfectly known to each other, the object of the one party being to gain time, and of the other to lull suspicion and make the offender and his relatives poor by accepting their property.
— from Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch by Edwin Thompson Denig

Our boat, half full of water, staggered at every shock, and more than once we believed her last plunge had been taken.
— from Parkhurst Boys, and Other Stories of School Life by Talbot Baines Reed

" He dilated at length, and with a graceful dexterity, upon the truths—the simple and mere truths of God's providence, and the history of his people—which David had embodied in the beautiful psalm which he had read them.
— from Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia by William Gilmore Simms

But even as they went their way up the steps and met the opposing crowd of out-goers, she was aware of eager unusual glances directed at her, she heard little whispered conversations beginning "Why surely"—she knew that people stopped and looked after them as she passed, and all the exultant pride uprose triumphant, and laughing in the sheer joy of its happiness, even as when first she knew she had borne a child.
— from Thorley Weir by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

She adverted more than once to the period of her lost sway amongst the Arabs, and mentioned some of the circumstances that aided her in obtaining influence with the wandering tribes.
— from Eothen; Or, Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East by Alexander William Kinglake

He asked himself if he had been shot at more than once.
— from Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad

Between the lands of Sumer and Akkad there was no natural division such as marks them off from the regions of Assyria and Mesopotamia in the north.
— from A History of Sumer and Akkad An account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy by L. W. (Leonard William) King

Philip was obdurate when suggestions were made of his abandoning Spain, and more than once, even when the situation looked hopeless, declared his intention of dying at the head of his troops, rather than abdicate the throne to which he felt divinely entitled.
— from A History of Spain founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira by Rafael Altamira

The enemy crossed the river, and advanced up into the country about fifty miles, and within thirty miles of Charlottesville, at which place the legislature being to meet in June, the Governor proceeded to his seat at Monticello, two or three miles from it.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 9 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson