You shall have this captain turned a shoemaker; the lieutenant, a baker; this a brewer; that a haberdasher; this common soldier, a porter; and every man in his apron and frock, &c., as if they never had done anything else: whereas the others go with their belts and swords, swearing and cursing, and stealing; running into people’s houses, by force oftentimes, to carry away something; and this is the difference between the temper of one and the other; and concludes (and I think with some reason,) that the spirits of the old parliament soldiers are so quiett and contented with God’s providences, that the King is safer from any evil meant him by them one thousand times more than from his own discontented Cavalier.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

I was stooping to pick up this last, when—firm, fast, straight—right on through vestibule—along corridor, across carré, through first division, second division, grand salle—strode a step, quick, regular, intent.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Scarcely was the image set in the camp; flame shot sparkling from its lifted eyes, and salt sweat started over its body; thrice, wonderful to tell, it leapt from the ground with shield and spear quivering.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

This is the correct answer to the puzzle, for if we now place rings below the line to represent the figures in brackets and rings on the line for the other figures, we get the solution in the required form, as below:— This is the exact position of the rings after the 9,999th move has been made, and the reader will find that the method shown will solve any similar question, no matter how many rings are on the tiring-irons.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney

When he went out of the house and got into the carriage he wanted to return home alive. XVIII The deacon got up, dressed, took his thick, gnarled stick and slipped quietly out of the house.
— from The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Robin Hood saw that the stranger had not caught sight of him, so he stopped and stood quite still, looking at the other a long time before he came forward.
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

She asked some questions: he gave short answers, and sat down to write.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Before descending the few steps the girl turned her face over her shoulder and said quickly, “You were to be set upon while you slept.”
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Of these, indeed, it may sometimes purchase a greater and sometimes a smaller quantity; but it is their value which varies, not that of the labour which purchases them.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

"I never saw anything so quaintly pretty," Sally said.
— from The Village by the River by H. Louisa Bedford

On the southeast corner of Congress (31st) Street and Stoddert (Q) Street stood, until 1893 or 1894, the very interesting old house where Francis Dodge and his large family lived for many, many years.
— from A Portrait of Old George Town by Grace Dunlop Peter

b. A precipitate:—the filtered fluid is treated as directed at 2 a .; the precipitate is washed with cold distilled water, dissolved in a little hydrochloric acid, ammonia is added in excess, and subsequently a sufficient quantity of ether, agitation being had recourse to:— α.
— from Cooley's Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I by Richard Vine Tuson

Pare the pine with as little waste as possible, cut it into rather thin slices, and soak these slices in the above proportion of brandy or liqueur and pounded sugar for 4 hours; then make a batter the same as for apple fritters, substituting cream for the milk, and using a smaller quantity of flour; and, when this is ready, dip in the pieces of pine, and fry them in boiling lard from 5 to 8 minutes; turn them when sufficiently brown on one side, and, when done, drain them from the lard before the fire, dish them on a white d'oyley, strew over them sifted sugar, and serve quickly.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

She tore long gluey masses of seaweed from the rocks and insisted on carrying them home; the mussels she found on the rocks interested her; she questioned the little shrimp fishers for several minutes about a dead starfish, and they stared in open-eyed amazement, thinking it very strange that a grown-up woman should ask such questions.
— from A Mummer's Wife by George Moore

Lady Tenderden had drawn round her a society at Spa, quite in harmony with that which she had been accustomed to live in.
— from The Exclusives (vol. 3 of 3) by Bury, Charlotte Campbell, Lady

Every tobacco planter, assiduous to secure a sufficient quantity of plants, generally has several of these plant beds in different situations, so that if one should fail, another may succeed; and an experienced planter commonly takes care to have ten times as many plants, as he can make use of.
— from The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by P. L. (Peter Lund) Simmonds

Denzil had a small patrimony to lead off with, and that he dissipated before he left college; thenceforth he was dependent upon his admirer, with whom he lived, filling a nominal post of bailiff to the estates, and launching forth verse of some satiric and sentimental quality; for being inclined to vice, and occasionally, and in a quiet way, practising it, he was of course a sentimentalist and a satirist, entitled to lash the Age and complain of human nature.
— from The Ordeal of Richard Feverel — Complete by George Meredith