"Behead" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... entertain the spectators with the tortures of St. Dennis, and at length, when more than dead, they mercifully behead him: the Saint, after his decapitation, rises very quietly, takes his head under his arm, and walks off the stage in all the dignity ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... as I know you will, that this was the fault of an unknown adventurer, of a Scotch gambler, of one John Law, who brought forth some pretentious schemes to the detriment of the realm. Saddle upon me the blame for all this ruin which is coming. Malign me, misrepresent me, imprison me, exile me, behead me if you like, and blame John Law for the discomfiture of France! But when you come to seek your remedies, why, ask no more of John Law. Ask of Dubois, ask of D'Argenson, ask of the Paris Freres; or, since your Grace has seen fit ...
— The Mississippi Bubble • Emerson Hough
... she had tried and sadly failed to help them. But the sunflowers' feelings did not affect her in quite the same way. The kind we have in abundance is that little dwarf variety with a thin stalk, and a cheerful face which smiles up at you even after you behead it, and does not seem to mind. Tara was convinced such treatment did not hurt them. They would stop smiling if it did. But one day she suddenly seemed to feel a pang of compunction, for she looked at the little ...
— Lotus Buds • Amy Carmichael
... obedience. When he found, at length, that his hold upon the guards was sufficiently strong, he produced his two final decrees, one ordering the guards to depose Oretes from his power, and the other to behead him. Both the commands ...
— Darius the Great - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... for twelve years, on a groundless charge, and finally slew him, at the age of sixty-six, broken by disease, and saddened, but not soured, by the monstrous ingratitude and injustice of his treatment. Upon the scaffold, he felt of the edge of the ax which was to behead him, and smiled, remarking, "A sharp medicine to cure me of my diseases!" Such are ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne
... that it was necessary for the redemption of the human species that the empire of the world should be vested in his hands, that Protestantism in all its forms should be extirpated as a malignant disease, and that to behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics who opposed the decree of himself and the Holy Church was the highest virtue by ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... his own person the despot, the senate, the magistrate and the executive of the law; his wife, his children and his slaves represented the people, constantly and eternally in real or theoretical opposition, while he was protected by all the force of the most ferocious laws. A father could behead his son with impunity; but the son who killed his father was condemned to be all but beaten to death, and then to be sewn up in a leathern sack and drowned. The father could take everything from the son; but if the son ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford
... papers, Goethe said: "The liberals may speak, for when they are reasonable we like to hear them; but with the royalists, who have the executive power in their hands, talking comes amiss—they should act. They may march troops, and behead and hang—that is all right; but attacking opinions, and justifying their measures in public prints, does not become them. If there were a public of ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. II • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... lightning Arthur leaped upon the knight, clasped him round the middle and threw him to the ground. But the knight was a powerful man, and throwing Arthur off he hurled him to the ground, struck off his helm and raised his sword to behead the king. ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester
... his form was upright, his countenance agreeable, yet masculine, and his strength almost incredible. He could sever the head from the body of the largest ox with one stroke of his sabre, and was so adroit at this Turkish practice, that he at length could behead men in the manner boys do nettles. In the latter years of his life, his aspect had become terrible; for, during the Bavarian war, he had been scorched by the explosion of a powder-barrel, and ever after his face remained scarred and impregnated with black spots. In company he rendered ...
— The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck - Vol. 2 (of 2) • Baron Trenck
... through the whole world to-day. You can hear its echo upon the mountains and the valleys yet, "I must decrease, but He must increase." He held up Jesus Christ and introduced Him to the world, and Herod had not power to behead him until his life work had been accomplished. Stephen never preached but one sermon that we know of, and that was before the Sanhedrim; but how that sermon has been preached again and again all over the world! Out of his death ...
— Men of the Bible • Dwight Moody
... malady in his eyes, being apprised of his return, sent orders for him to depart instantly to Cahay. The young cavalier assumed a tone of defiance. He warned Roldan not to make foes when he had such great need of friends; for, to his certain knowledge, the admiral intended to behead him. Upon this, Roldan commanded him to quit that part of the island, and repair to San Domingo, to present himself before the admiral. The thoughts of being banished entirely from the vicinity of his Indian beauty checked the vehemence of the youth. He changed his tone ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving
... Dutertre, Adjutant of the Eighth, who had been captured by the Arabs in the early part of the action, was sent forward by the enemy toward his old comrades. For a moment the firing ceased, and the Captain shouted so that all could hear him,—"Chasseurs, they have sworn to behead me, if you do not lay down your arms; and I say to you, Die, rather than surrender ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. • Various
... Man there was once a law that any girl who had been wronged by a man had the right to redress herself in one of three ways: she was given a sword, a rope and a ring, and she could decide whether she would behead him, hang him, or marry him. Tradition states that the ring was almost invariably the weapon chosen ...
— Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages • Julia De Wolf Addison
... permitted to purchase a goat. A soldier, a good fellow who had been very friendly to us, selected a fine fat one for us, and we were looking forward with pleasure to a solid meal, when we found to our dismay that we had no means of despatching the animal. We could not behead it, as the Tibetans would not trust us with a knife or sword, and the Tibetans themselves refused to kill the animal for us in any other way. Eventually our soldier friend allowed his scruples to be overcome by the payment of a rupee, and proceeded ...
— In the Forbidden Land • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... shalt not escape Regret thyself hereafter, if thou slay 400 Me, charmer of the woes of Gods and men. Self-taught am I, and treasure in my mind Themes of all argument from heav'n inspired, And I can sing to thee as to a God. Ah, then, behead me not. Put ev'n the wish Far from thee! for thy own beloved son Can witness, that not drawn by choice, or driv'n By stress of want, resorting to thine house I have regaled these revellers so oft, But under force of mightier far than I. 410 So he; whose words soon as ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... The judges treated this argument very lightly; and they were surely justified in so treating it. For it is an argument which would lead to the conclusion that it could not be an overt act of treason to behead a King with a guillotine or to shoot ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 4 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... permitted the samurai to show of what stuff he was made. It should be stated further that in the case of "seppuku," as soon as the act of cutting the abdomen had been completed, always by a single rapid stroke, someone from behind would, with a single blow, behead the victim. The physical agony of "seppuku" was, therefore, very brief, ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick
... of them in their new line. In fact, there is not a petty tyrant in Asia or Africa so dull or so unlearned as not to be fully qualified for the business of Jacobin police and Jacobin finance. To behead people by scores without caring whether they are guilty or innocent; to wring money out of the rich by the help of jailers and executioners; to rob the public creditor, and to put him to death if he remonstrates; to take loaves by force out of the bakers' shops; to clothe ...
— Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... in him does not quarrel; he does not go to law for temporall goods; he does not kill; he lets his coat and cloke go rather than oppose another."[12] "If Christ were of the seed of Adam, He would have the {144} nature and inclinations of Adam. He would hang thieves, behead adulterers, rack murderers with the wheel, kill hereticks, and put corporeally to death all manner of sinners; but now He is tender, kind, loving. He kills no one. The Lamb kills no woolf."[13] Weigel goes ...
— Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries • Rufus M. Jones
... the inhabitants of the African coast than their kindred who lived inland back of them. This fraternity had shown itself instinctively in the thousand-year war. The Berber pirates, the Genoese sailors, the Spaniards, and the Knights of Malta used implacably to behead each other on the decks of their galleys and, upon becoming conquerors, would respect the life of their prisoners, treating them like gentlemen. The Admiral Barbarossa, eighty-four years of age, used to call Doria, his eternal rival ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... the most skilful agriculturists are those who have reduced the heads of sheep to the smallest size, we shall have arrived at the highest agricultural perfection when sheep have no longer any heads. Therefore, in order to realise the perfection, let us behead them. ...
— Essays on Political Economy • Frederic Bastiat
... Quaestors, who came to have charge of the treasury, under consular supervision. The consuls were attended by twelve Lictors, who carried the fasces—bundles of rods fastened around an ax,—which symbolized the power of the magistrate to flog or to behead offenders. The Comitia Centuriata acquired the right to elect the consuls, to hear appeals in capital cases from their verdicts, and to accept or reject bills laid before it. This was a great gain for the plebeians. Yet the patricians were strong enough in this assembly to control its action. On ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher
... on the 21st of January; his text was, 'Bind your kings with chains, and your nobles with fetters of iron.' He maintained that the King was not above the law. It was said they had no power to behead the King; 'Turn to your bibles,' he answered, 'and you shall find it there, Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; and I see neither King Charles, Prince Charles, nor prince Rupert, nor prince Maurice, nor any of that rabble ...
— State Trials, Political and Social - Volume 1 (of 2) • Various
... that means to cleanse, behead, And leave of cloth a kind; Behead again, and leave a seed Canaries love to find; Behead again, and it will ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, V. 5, April 1878 - Scribner's Illustrated • Various
... another Nation; while, like ill-coupled Hounds, by drawing different Ways, we sometimes rather disturb than help one another. If I had Hopes to get a Law pass'd, to burn every Clergyman who does not reside, to hang every Gentleman, and behead every Nobleman, who desert their Country for their Amusement, I wou'd even be content to return to the World, and sollicit Votes for it; but without taking up the Burden of Life again, I shou'd feel Joy in my Grave, to have ...
— A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq. • Anonymous
... into consciences and private parlour Allowed the demon of religious hatred to enter into its body Behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics Christian sympathy and a small assistance not being sufficient Contained within itself the germs of a larger liberty Could not be both judge and party in the suit Covered now with the satirical dust of centuries Deadly hatred of Puritans ...
— Quotations From John Lothrop Motley • David Widger
... to put him on trial for blasphemy, heresy, impersonating a prophet, practicing witchcraft without a license, or any other ecclesiastical crimes you or they can think of. Then, after he's been given a scrupulously fair trial, have the soldiers of King Yoorkerk behead him, and stick his head up over a big sign, in all native languages, 'Rakkeed the False Prophet.' And have audio-visuals made of the whole business, trial and execution, and be sure that the priests and Yoorkerk's officers are in ...
— Ullr Uprising • Henry Beam Piper
... no. I fred ki' him. Fred I get behead." An' nen dissa woman getta vay mad wif him, an' say: "You doan' ki' him, I tekka dissa knife an' chot op yo' head op, instamentty!" Nen he begin ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Mystic-Humorous Stories • Various
... sons of Nera son of Nuathar son of Tacan, while engaged in that feat. And they vied which of the twain [4]would be the first to fight and contend with Cuchuain, which of them[4] would inflict the first wound upon [W.680.] him and be the first to behead him. Cuchulain turned on them, and straightway he struck off their four heads [1]from themselves [2]Eirr and Indell[2] and [3]from Foich and Fochlam,[3] their drivers,[1] and he fixed a head of each man of them on each of the prongs of the pole. And Cuchulain let the horses of the party ...
— The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Tain Bo Cualnge • Unknown
... whom the most offences have been committed. Take the Christian Church, the greatest of all societies. Who can enumerate the offences which have been committed against the church? Herod tried to behead it, but could not; Pilate tried to crucify it, but instead sanctified it; Paul persecuted it and it redeemed him; poor drunken and debauched Nero poured forth the fury of his wrath against it in every conceivable, wicked way. He deliberately set fire to the city of Rome ...
— Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt • William James Edwards
... jealous of her sister, as Elizabeth was afterwards jealous of Mary Stuart. And it would have been as easy for Mary to execute Elizabeth as it was for Elizabeth to execute the Queen of Scots, or Henry VIII. to behead his wives; and such a crime would have been excused as readily as the execution of Somerset or of the Lady Jane Grey, both from political necessity and religious expediency. Elizabeth was indeed subjected to great humiliations, and ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VIII • John Lord
... brother's ordinance. And so was this cursed king never made sorrow for, as he supposed for to have been. And ye shall understand, that in that time there were three Herods, of great name and fame for their cruelty. This Herod, of which I have spoken of was Herod Ascalonite; and he that let behead Saint John the Baptist was Herod Antipas; and he that let smite off Saint James's head was Herod Agrippa, and he put Saint ...
— The Travels of Sir John Mandeville • Author Unknown
... 'tis a Revolution; if not, 'tis call'd a Rebellion: 'tis seldom consider'd, whether the first Motives be just or unjust. Now is it not enough, in such Cases, for the prevailing Party to hang or behead the Offenders, if they can catch them, without extending the Punishment to innocent Persons ...
— Franco-Gallia • Francis Hotoman
... a bird's nest, and leave a lake in North America. 2. Behead a marine map, and leave a wild animal. 3. Behead a sail vessel, and leave a small narrow opening. 4. Behead a plant, and leave space. 5. Behead a basket or hamper, and leave standard or proportion. 6. Behead a sharp bargainer, and leave ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12 • Various
... yellow gate, bring us that picture, that we may view it. [Sees the picture.] Ah, how has he dimmed the purity of the gem, bright as the waves in autumn. [To the attendant] Transmit our pleasure to the officer of the guard, to behead Maouyenshow and report ...
— Chinese Literature • Anonymous
... I'm found in every home; but if you once behead, I may be white, I may be black, I may be brown or red. Behead again, and all at once invisible am I; You can not grasp me, yet without ...
— Harper's Young People, August 31, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... general idea of what it would look like, and found it where Little Fuzzy had discarded it when he found the chisel. It was a stock of hardwood a foot long, rubbed down and polished smooth, apparently with sandstone. There was a paddle at one end, with enough of an edge to behead a prawn, and the other end had been worked to a point. He took it into the living hut and sat down at the desk to examine it with a magnifying glass. Bits of soil embedded in the sharp end—that had been ...
— Little Fuzzy • Henry Beam Piper
... in going through the tower like you was in an American slaughter house, for it was here that kings and queens were beheaded by the dozen. They showed us axes that were used to behead people, and blocks that the heads of the victims were laid on, and the places where the heads fell on the floor. It seemed that in olden times when a king or a queen got too gay, the anti-kings or queens would go to the palace and catch the king or queen in the act, and ...
— Peck's Bad Boy Abroad • George W. Peck
... the Admiral takes to him a wife; and when the year is out, he calls to him all the lords, kings, and princes of his realm, and in their presence casts off his wife, and causes a knight to behead her, that no man may wed her after him; thus with the bitterness of an early death does she pay for the fleeting honour of royal wedlock; and when his wife is dead, the Admiral, with intent to replace her with another, summons ...
— Fleur and Blanchefleur • Mrs. Leighton
... their Cities and Towns, spar'd no Age, or Sex, nay not so much as Women with Child, but ripping up their Bellies, tore them alive in pieces. They laid Wagers among themselves, who should with a Sword at one blow cut, or divide a Man in two; or which of them should decollate or behead a Man, with the greatest dexterity; nay farther, which should sheath his Sword in the Bowels of a Man with the ...
— A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies • Bartolome de las Casas
... to his lictors. Mannaeus heard the command, and, seeing a lictor step forward armed with a hatchet, he feared that the man intended to behead Iaokanann. He stayed the hand of the lictor after the first blow, and then slipped between the heavy lid and the pavement a kind of hook. He braced his long, lean arms, raised the cover slowly, and in a moment it lay flat upon the stones. The ...
— Herodias • Gustave Flaubert
... decrepito decrepit. decreto decree. dedicar to dedicate, devote. dedo finger. deducir to deduce, infer. defender to defend. defensa defense. defensor m. defender. degollar to cut the throat, behead. deicida deicidal. dejar to leave, let, omit; —— de to fail, omit; dejarse de to leave off. delante before, in front of. delgado thin, delicate. delicioso delicious, delightful. delirar to ...
— Novelas Cortas • Pedro Antonio de Alarcon
... help making love to you, just for one little intense minute; there is a certain Communistic temper always adhering in true love which WILL occasionally break out and behead all the Royal Proprieties and hang Law to the first lamp-post: it is even now so, my heart is a little '93, 'aux armes!' Where is this minister that imprisons us, away from our friends, in the Bastile ...
— Sidney Lanier • Edwin Mims
... he noddes at vs, as who should say, Ile be euen with you. Ile see if his head will stand steddier on a pole, or no: Take him away, and behead him ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... Lincoln-Seward—provide the incarnate formula with all imaginable legal, constitutional powers, more than twice sufficient to save the country. Could only the brains and hands entrusted with laws, be able to execute them! Oh for a legal, constitutional, statute Cromwell, ready to behead treason, rebellion, slavocracy and slavo-sympathy, as the great Oliver beheaded and crushed the poisonous weeds of his time. If the democratic-copperhead vermin had the possibility, they would make a McClellan-Seymour ...
— Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 • Adam Gurowski
... wreaths like turbans seem Of silent slaves that come and go,— Or Viziers, packed with craft and crime, Whom I behead from time to time, With pipe-stem, at a single blow. And now and then a lingering cloud Takes gracious form at my desire, And at my side my lady stands, Unwinds her veil with snowy hands,— A shadowy shape, a breath ...
— Pipe and Pouch - The Smoker's Own Book of Poetry • Various
... replied the young noble, "as I am aware that his Eminence has too much regard for his family to behead one ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe
... that they should come to him, an official of the Peshwa, to demand tribute; he would have them destroyed. Beyond, not two kos away, were a thousand soldiers,—which was a gorgeous lie,—who if he but sent a messenger would come and behead the lot, would cast the sacred bones in the gaudy bags upon the dunghill of ...
— Caste • W. A. Fraser
... transgression of his command, called four most cruel executioners, and commanded one of them to cast him into prison, another to afflict him with grievous torments; the third to strangle him, and the fourth to behead him. By and by, when occasion offers, I will give you the right name of ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various
... fee [His purse.]; and, my good fellow, let my suit be dispatched presently; for tis all one pain, to die a lingering death, and to live in the continual mill of a lawsuit. But I can tell thee, my neck is so short, that, if thou shouldst behead an hundred noblemen like myself, thou wouldst ne'er get credit by it; therefore (look ye, sir), do it handsomely, or, of my word, thou shalt never ...
— Sir Thomas More • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]
... died the same day and month that she resolved, in her Privy Council, to behead the Queen ...
— Memoirs of a Cavalier • Daniel Defoe
... kill him at the steps of the throne of Burgundy, let the result be what it may. God will protect me in my just vengeance. I will then go home; and I'll not return to Burgundy till I do so at the head of an army, to compel Duke Charles to behead Campo-Basso." ...
— Yolanda: Maid of Burgundy • Charles Major
... it on like one in a dream. The Privy Councillor with his own hands girt around my waist the two weapons, sacred from time immemorial to the use of the Japanese noble, the sword with which to behead his friend, and the dagger ...
— The International Spy - Being the Secret History of the Russo-Japanese War • Allen Upward |
