As to matters in the Southeast, I think Hardee, in Savannah, has good artillerists, some five or six thousand good infantry, and, it may be, a mongrel mass of eight to ten thousand militia.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

He has got some body's old two-hand sword, to mow you off at the knees; and that sword hath spawn'd such a dagger!—But then he is so hung with pikes, halberds, petronels, calivers and muskets, that he looks like a justice of peace's hall: a man of two thousand a-year, is not cess'd at so many weapons as he has on.
— from Epicoene; Or, The Silent Woman by Ben Jonson

Nevertheless I would have you to know that I sought not, either by art or by fraud, to impose any stain upon the honour and illustriousness of your blood in the person of Sophronia, and that, albeit I took her secretly to wife, I came not as a ravisher to rob her of her maidenhead nor sought, after the manner of an enemy, whilst shunning your alliance, to have her otherwise than honourably; but, being ardently enkindled by her lovesome beauty and by her worth and knowing that, had I sought her with that ordinance which you will maybe say I should have used, I should not (she being much beloved of you) have had her, for fear lest I should carry her off to Rome, I used the occult means that may now be discovered to you and caused Gisippus, in my person, consent unto that which he himself was not disposed to do.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

To her it seemed highly improbable, that a thing of such value, so carefully deposited, should vanish without the connivance of its keeper, and without much expense of conjecture, divined the true manner in which it was conveyed.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

I have enclosed a letter to the Chancellor which, when you have read it, you will be pleased to seal with a head, or other general seal, and convey it to him; had I sent it directly to him, I should have seemed to overlook the favour of your intervention.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

Father doesn't want to turn aside from his cup till he is seventy, he dreams of hanging on to eighty in fact, so he says.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a trifle too high, and sees by the young lady's countenance that the edifice would have been better with the top compliment left off, he puts his 'I beg pardon—no harm intended,' into the briefer form of 'Oh, that's for lagniappe.'
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

Thus he came to think for himself, ideas were suggested to him indirectly, so he was never a servile copyist, and he acquired the habit of speedy accomplishment.
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig

“The Individual squeezed him a little too hard, I suppose,” he added, applying his ear to the region of the heart, and moving his head about a little as he did so.
— from The Witch of Prague: A Fantastic Tale by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

I saw him stabbed through and through the heart; I saw him roll backward on the green in his own blood, utter his last words, and groan away his soul.
— from The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

Tell him I said he must hurry and get well, as we must rehearse our pieces for Washington’s Birthday.'
— from Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories; Second Series by James Edmund Dunning

She was vexed that her inattention should have been betrayed to the class, and presently she gave her full attention to the recital.
— from Consequences by E. M. Delafield

Once, however, as he looked back, to his indignant surprise he noted Van Shaw driving the team and turning about from time to time as if to converse with Helen, who was lying on a camp bed under the canopy cover which had been pulled back, on account of the heat, so as to allow Helen a glance now and then of some passing point of interest.
— from The High Calling by Charles M. Sheldon

Many a time I have seen her, after Holy Communion, straining her eyes on the Tabernacle, and I knew she was knocking vigorously at the Heart of Christ; and many a time have I seen her, a Lady of Sorrows, imploring the Queen of Sorrows to take that one trouble from her life.
— from My New Curate by Patrick Augustine Sheehan

But the German, seeing nought, Only hearing what he thought Must be twelve-inch guns at least Firing at him from the East, Felt that it was time to hook it, Saw his chance and boldly took it.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, June 18, 1919 by Various

He is tall, he is spare; he is very blond, and his eyes are very blue.
— from The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, August, 1913 Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913 by Various