He took snuff in some confusion; and, putting his hand in his pocket, gave him his blessing in something more substantial than words—‘Clinker (said he), I am so well convinced, both of your honesty and courage, that I am resolved to make you my life-guardman on the highway.’
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff or two side the head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes on him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to a big staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and both legs, and said he warn’t to have nothing but bread and water to eat after this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because he didn’t come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and said a couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the cabin every night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and about this time they was through with the job and was tapering off with a kind of generl good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and takes a look, and says: “Don’t be no rougher on him than you’re obleeged to, because he ain’t a bad nigger.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I will say you, said Sir Gawaine, it beseemeth evil a good knight to despise all ladies and gentlewomen, and peradventure though he hate you he hath some cause, and peradventure he loveth in some other places ladies and gentlewomen, and to be loved again, and he such a man of prowess as ye speak of—” “Man of prowess—yes, that is the man to please them, Sandy.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

While Plymouth, Salem, Chelsea, and Providence had taverns that served coffee, they did not achieve the name and fame of some of the more celebrated coffee houses in Boston.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

I gave her a larger piece than usual, and she chuckled and patted herself.
— from The Story of My Life With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Helen Keller

Devanne lighted a second cigar and poured himself a glass of Benedictine.
— from The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc

When I raised the alarm, one of the Indians came up to me with his tomahawk, as though about to take my life; a second came and placed his hand before my mouth, and told me to hush, when a third came with a lifted tomahawk, and attempted to give me a blow; but the first that came raised his tomahawk and averted the blow, and claimed me as his squaw.
— from Life of Joseph Brant—Thayendanegea (Vol. II) Including the Border Wars of the American Revolution and Sketches of the Indian Campaigns of Generals Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne; And Other Matters Connected with the Indian Relations of the United States and Great Britain, from the Peace of 1783 to the Indian Peace of 1795 by William L. (William Leete) Stone

The shuddering chill again possessed her.
— from Rose O'Paradise by Grace Miller White

He flung himself upon his knees before Sir Crispin, and passionately he pleaded for the sparing of his miserable life.
— from The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini

Their dresses are highly absurd, their figures being concealed by long stiff corsets and prodigious hoops; for these were the days when the mode was— "Supporters, pooters, fardingales, above the loynes to weare;" and the guardainfante , the oval hoop peculiar to Spain, was in full blow; and the robes of a dowager might have curtained the tun of Heidelberg, and the powers of Velasquez were baffled by the perverse fancy of "Fribble, the woman's tailor."
— from The Old Masters and Their Pictures, For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art by Sarah Tytler

He smiled comfortably and put his hands over his eyes because of the light.
— from The White Peacock by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

Perhaps this is the subtlest compliment Americans paid him.
— from The Boys' Life of Lafayette by Helen Nicolay

Behind the barrels Haldimand planted such cannon as Prideaux had left him; and then went to work to build the fort proper without loss of time.
— from Marching on Niagara; Or, The Soldier Boys of the Old Frontier by Edward Stratemeyer

But now the sexton has done his office to the satisfaction of the beadle of Merchant Tailors’ Hall, who “hath an honest stipend allowed him to see that this is duly done,” and the cart is again under weigh, when, if the principal subject be popular, a lady (you assume her beauty, and you need not rake the rubbish of two centuries for witness against her character) trips down the steps of St. Sepulchre’s Church and presents him with a huge nosegay.
— from The Law's Lumber Room (Second Series) by Francis Watt