All the military force it could muster to meet the advance of the clans was the small but fairly efficient body of men who formed the Town Guard; the Train Bands, some thousand strong, who knew no more than so many spinsters of the division of a battle; the small and undisciplined Edinburgh regiment; and a scratch collection of volunteers hurriedly raked together from among the humbler citizens of the town, and about as useful as so many puppets to oppose to the daring and the ferocity of the clans.
— from A History of the Four Georges, Volume II by Justin McCarthy

The British were successful and under English rule the ports of Cuba were opened to free trade and an era of progress was inaugurated.
— from A Voyage with Captain Dynamite by Charles Edward Rich

At the same signal I drew the arms up again over the head, and held them there while Uncle Ed again counted four; then I returned the arms to the sides, and Uncle Ed repeated the squeezing process.
— from The Scientific American Boy; Or, The Camp at Willow Clump Island by A. Russell (Alexander Russell) Bond

It was a most gloriously brilliant and sparkling afternoon; the sky an intense blue, save where it was flecked here and there with woolly-looking patches of trade cloud sailing solemnly up out of the east; the sea, too, was as brilliantly blue as the sky, but of a deeper tint; there was not very much swell on, although the breeze was blowing fresh from the eastward; and the brig, with her weather-braces well checked, was staggering along under every rag of canvas that would draw.
— from Dick Leslie's Luck: A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure by Harry Collingwood