Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the judgment of a learned nation; yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and elegies with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto.
— 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

But as soon as Sir Key saw it he knew well it was the sword of the stone, and, riding swiftly to his father, he cried out, “Lo!
— from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Knowles, James, Sir

After giving his last instructions and counsel to his sons, and speaking kindly to Frithiof, for whom he entertained a warm regard, the old king turned to his lifelong companion, Thorsten, to take leave of him, but the old warrior declared that they would not long be parted.
— from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber

In these they promise great rewards to such as shall kill the prince, and lesser in proportion to such as shall kill any other persons who are those on whom, next to the prince himself, they cast the chief balance of the war.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

And Christie left the prints of two floury but affectionate hands on the old lady's shoulders, as she kissed the wrinkled face that had never worn a frown to her.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott

Hairpins with which the Saxon ladies bound up their tresses, chatelaines with tweezers for removing superfluous hairs, toothpicks, scissors, and small knives, are very frequent, and combs made of bone.
— from English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

I had never been struck at so keenly, for my thanklessness to Joe, as through the brazen impostor Pumblechook.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

You know, he is quite a different sort from the Public Prosecutor and our other provincial skinflints—fellows who shiver in their shoes before they will spend a single kopeck.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

But why this is so I don’t know...” As he said this he rose, went to his sister, and, stooping, kissed her forehead.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Soon after, someone knocked.
— from Evelyn Innes by George Moore

Still, as she approached, she kept her eyes lowered to the ground; and when she had drawn quite near, it was without one glance that she addressed me.
— from The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson

He would not allow her to attend the district school; all she knew she learned from him.
— from Saxe Holm's Stories First Series by Helen Hunt Jackson

Instinctively she disliked Lévy-Coeur, and she detested him as soon as she knew that Christophe detested him.
— from Jean-Christophe in Paris: The Market-Place, Antoinette, the House by Romain Rolland

Yes, no doubt she was immediately responsible for some, and she knew just which they were from the outside without any need to open them.
— from The Nebuly Coat by John Meade Falkner

Mrs. Dodd had decided that the poor thing was fretting for her husband; she considered that Mrs. Haggard deserved her sympathy, and so King's Warren looked on Mrs. Haggard as a "poor thing," and duly sympathized.
— from The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 2 (of 3) by C. J. (Charles James) Wills

She fought desperately against her weakness; but there was a moment when all around her swam, and she knew nothing.
— from Marcella by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

It was late in the evening when she heard the carriage return, and soon afterward she knew that Adrian was once more under the same roof.
— from The Shadow of a Sin by Charlotte M. Brame