"Tocsin" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... powder and ammunition on board; and the poor commandant, beside himself with terror, cried, "Boys, the fleet is on fire;" and immediately had the alarm beaten. The frightful news spread like lightning; and in less than half an hour more than sixty thousand men appeared upon the wharves, the tocsin was sounded in all the churches, the forts fired alarm guns, while drums and trumpets sounded along the streets, the whole making an ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton
... boldness, at that hour, to accuse Robespierre and Danton of crime. Though thousands in France were horror-stricken at these outrages, the mob, who now ruled Paris, would rally instantaneously at the sound of the tocsin for the protection of ...
— Madame Roland, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott
... The tocsin was rung in the Place d'Armes about 11.30 p.m. followed by heavy gunfire from our now more numerous defences. Almost simultaneously bomb explosions could be heard. We hastily wrapped up what patients were well enough to move, and the orderlies carried ...
— Fanny Goes to War • Pat Beauchamp
... the tocsin was sounded: the two villages joined forces, and with weapons in their hands marched along the road from Beaucaire to Nimes. At the bridge of Quart the villagers of Redressan and Marguerite joined ...
— Massacres Of The South (1551-1815) - Celebrated Crimes • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... few seconds. Drums began to beat towards the Place de Greve. The tocsin bell of the Hotel de Ville sounded. There was a shock—a check of the crowd's volitions. A heavy rolling-back movement took place, and a public roar of fear was heard. People on the edges ran to shelter, and in a few moments more a volley ...
— The False Chevalier - or, The Lifeguard of Marie Antoinette • William Douw Lighthall
... have worshipped Wife and Child. But softly you shall frame the fence, and softly carve the door, And softly plane the table—as to spread it for the poor, And all your thoughts be soft and white as the wood of the white tree. But if they tear the Charter, Jet the tocsin speak for me! Let the wooden sign above your shop be prouder to be scarred Than the lion-shield of Lancelot that hung at ...
— Poems • G.K. Chesterton
... doors to virtue only are denied. While beneath plunder'd Saints, in outraged fanes Plots Faction, and Revenge the altar stains; And, contrast sad and wide, The very bells which sweetly wont to fling Summons to prayer and praise now Battle's tocsin ring! ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... in the mouth of an obscure alley which my companion whispered would bring us to his house; and here we paused to take breath and look back. The sky was red behind us, the air full of the clash and din of the tocsin, and the flood of sounds which poured from every tower and steeple. From the eastward came the rattle of drums and random shots, and shrieks of "A BAS COLIGNY!" "A BAS LES HUGUENOTS!" Meanwhile the city was rising as one man, pale at this ...
— The House of the Wolf - A Romance • Stanley Weyman
... however, M. de Barringhen, the king's first equerry. This officer they mounted on a spare horse, and set out for the Low Countries; but, being little acquainted with the roads, they did not reach Chantilly till next morning, when they heard the tocsin, or alarm-bell, and thence concluded that detachments were sent out in pursuit of them. Nevertheless, they proceeded boldly, and would certainly have carried the point, had not Queintern halted three hours for the refreshment of his prisoner, who complained of his being indisposed. He likewise ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett |
