One or two blows struck near him, and a few stones thrown, started him, and we lost his track, and had the pleasant consciousness that he might be directly under our feet.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

A second look showed her that the living eyes, under the bushy gray eyebrows, were kinder even than the painted ones; and there was a sly twinkle in them, which lessened her fear a good deal.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

interrupted the Captain-General, twirling a chair about on one leg and smiling nervously, “if all the servants of my Excellency were like his Reverence, Padre Damaso, I should prefer myself to serve my Excellency!” [ 286 ] The reverend gentlemen, who were standing up physically, did so mentally at this interruption. “Won’t your Reverences be seated?” he added after a brief pause, moderating his tone a little.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

She replied that instead of trying to lead her into sin I would do better to get her some charity tickets that she might be able to marry a young man who loved her, and would make her happy.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The hero of his discourse (Hythloday) is very unwilling to become a minister of state, considering that he would lose his independence and his advice would never be heeded 10 .
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

If in the woodland traveller there had been That eve, who lost himself, strange sight he'd seen.
— from Poems by Victor Hugo

The thegn urged his entreaties with tears, earnestly beseeching him that he would go in and pray for the servant, because his life was of great moment to him; and he believed that if the bishop would lay his hand upon him and give him his blessing, he would soon mend.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

[69] As soon as Sulla had vanquished the Samnites and thought he had put an end to the war (the rest of it he held of no account) he changed his tactics and, as it were, left his former personality behind outside the wall and in the battle, and proceeded to surpass Cinna and Marius and all their associates combined.
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Cassius Dio Cocceianus

While he toils at this apparently hopelessly task, we will return to the night when we left him in the library, after having obtained possession of the secret packet.
— from Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west by Warren T. Ashton

If only this busy, fussy, hearty old bore would leave him alone!
— from The Upton Letters by Arthur Christopher Benson

"Perhaps he will let himself be baptized, for water can hurt no one, and he cannot, like the great Diocletian, exterminate the masses who run after the crucified miracle-monger, without depopulating the country.
— from Homo Sum — Volume 03 by Georg Ebers

She has been so soft over that girl ever since her supposed death, that there's no telling what pity would lead her to do!"
— from Kathleen's Diamonds; or, She Loved a Handsome Actor by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

But, at Wallingford, Leicester has imprisoned my son, Prince Edward.
— from Chivalry: Dizain des Reines by James Branch Cabell

It was like Henry Bates to write mysteriously.
— from The Trufflers: A Story by Samuel Merwin

"Martin, Sir Penthony will lunch here," says Cecil, calmly.
— from Molly Bawn by Duchess

She believed in her own coming happiness; that he would love her better for the delay—understand more fully why she hesitated.
— from Mattie:—A Stray (Vol 3 of 3) by F. W. (Frederick William) Robinson

Lloyd, Neill, Wheeler, Lawrence, Hewett, Sibbald, were so closely engaged in attending to the districts around Dinapoor, Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Meerut, and Bareilly, that they could not send aid to the besiegers of Delhi, during several weeks of siege operations.
— from The History of the Indian Revolt and of the Expeditions to Persia, China and Japan, 1856-7-8 by George Dodd

With a hasty step Gray left the scene of action, and struck at once into a long narrow lane which led him among the by-streets at the back of the Strand.
— from Ada, the Betrayed; Or, The Murder at the Old Smithy. A Romance of Passion by James Malcolm Rymer