Lawgivers were never more mistaken, said Lady Mary, than when they ordained that the conjugal tie should last through life for better and worse; the last injunction being strictly complied with. There should be septennial marriages, as well as septennial parliaments!

They then confined the Dean, while they rifled the house of every valuable article, as well as plate and money; all that was portable they loaded on Mr. Carleton’s own tumbril, to which they harnessed his horse […]

The pirates threatened to kill Captain Phillips if attacked, and the result was tragicomic: the world’s most powerful navy vs. a lifeboat.

Why should he take a sort of imbecile and morbid satisfaction, in appearing in the public chronicles of the day, under the depreciating, and, as it appears to us, ‘ Heep’-ishly ‘ umble ’ title of ‘ a small clergyman ?’