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Ransom   Listen
noun
Ransom  n.  
1.
The release of a captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration; redemption; as, prisoners hopeless of ransom.
2.
The money or price paid for the redemption of a prisoner, or for goods captured by an enemy; payment for freedom from restraint, penalty, or forfeit. "Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems." "His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty."
3.
(O. Eng. Law) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offense and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.
Ransom bill (Law), a war contract, valid by the law of nations, for the ransom of property captured at sea and its safe conduct into port.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Ransom" Quotes from Famous Books



... urged him to prevent the delay and danger of a siege, by the offer of a capitulation; and as soon as the Athenians heard the voice of the Gothic herald, they were easily persuaded to deliver the greatest part of their wealth, as the ransom of the city of Minerva and its inhabitants. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and observed with mutual fidelity. The Gothic prince, with a small and select train, was admitted within the walls; he indulged himself in the refreshment of the bath, ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon

... habitude of self-pleasing, foreordained itself to sink down into ever deeper and more utter debasement. With the "slight, almost imperceptible start," at the accidental words which connect the value of his jewels with "a man's ransom," we feel that some baseness is already within himself contemplated. With the transference of their price to the goldsmith's hands, we know that the baseness is in his heart resolved on. When the message ...
— The Ethics of George Eliot's Works • John Crombie Brown

... thing, I was not in the least frightened about my fate; for, as the old chap had not killed us at the first start off, it occurred to me that he had merely taken us prisoners with the view of getting a heavy ransom for us by-and-by, being led to the belief that we might be important personages on account of his seeing us followed after we landed from the gunboat, ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson

... is worth a king's good. Winter thunder, a summer's wonder. March dust is worth a king's ransom. A cold May and a windy, makes a ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 214, December 3, 1853 • Various

... obedient people. They mostly lived in tents. Government had furnished lumber to erect a few temporary buildings. An old dilapidated farmhouse, and a few log- huts formerly occupied by the overseer and slaves, were the homes of Captain Gordon and Surgeon Ransom, with their families, who seemed to enjoy camp life as well as any I had seen. They had in charge four companies of soldiers. Their hospital assumed an air of ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... armies fell at Syracuse, And fettered thousands bore the yoke of war, Redemption rose up in the Attic Muse,[399] Her voice their only ransom from afar:[lr] See! as they chant the tragic hymn, the car Of the o'ermastered Victor stops—the reins Fall from his hands—his idle scimitar Starts from its belt—he rends his captive's chains, And bids him thank the Bard for Freedom ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron

... fallen; and, notwithstanding the Mayor of that city—be his name forever buried in oblivion—went out to meet the enemy hoping doubtless to secure his favor by craven submission, a heavy ransom had been exacted for its exemption from pillage. A rebel detachment had fallen upon and put to flight the force guarding the bridge over the Susquehanna at Columbia, and thus compelled the burning of that fine structure; while Ewell with ...
— Our campaign around Gettysburg • John Lockwood

... terms?—Might not a promise of ransom, with hostages, do something? I would cheerfully remain in the hands of the barbarians, in order to effect the release of the rest of ...
— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper

... its nearer approach, it seemeth him to be a ship; and at a dear ransom he freeth his speech from the ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... "I'll hold you for ransom. Sooner or later those prospectors over there are going to strike gold. Strike it rich! I know that. I've got to make a living ...
— The Border Legion • Zane Grey

... softened in one particular, after the first edition[401]; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character stood thus: 'Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed: could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have counted it[402].' Which, instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word,—truism: 'He had powers not universally possessed: and if he sometimes erred, he was ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... to the grave, but we will not deplore thee, Since God was thy refuge, thy ransom, thy guide; He gave thee, he took thee and he will restore thee, And death has no sting since the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 281, November 3, 1827 • Various

... provoke him to do it? If so, consider of what I say:—To thee it is opened no more for ever (Job 36:14). If thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him. Yea, "because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke; then a great ransom cannot deliver thee" (v 18). Will he esteem thy riches? No; not gold, nor all the forces of strength. "He hath prepared his throne for judgment" (Psa 9:7). For "he will come with fire, and with his chariots like ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... excellent fashion, but well-knit and well-measured rather than slender and wavering as the willow-bough. Her voice was sweet and soft, her words few, but exceeding dear to the listener. In short, she was a woman born to be the ransom of her Folk. ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

... contemplating it, the latter, however, filled with apprehension lest the giants shall claim Freia, the goddess of love, whom Wotan has promised to them as the reward for their work. Loge, the god of fire, however, has agreed to obtain a ransom for her. He has searched the world over, but has been unable to find anything that can excel in value or attraction the charm of love. As the gods are contemplating their castle Loge appears, and in a scene of great power, accompanied by music which ...
— The Standard Operas (12th edition) • George P. Upton

... she threw herself at their feet, imploring mercy for her parent. This they not only promised, but offered her a place in their carriage to Dax, that she might see him restored to liberty. On the road the monsters insisted on a ransom for the blood of her father. Waiting, afflicted and ashamed, at a friend's house at Dag, the accomplishment of a promise so dearly purchased, she heard the beating of the alarm drum, and looked, from curiosity, through the window, when she saw her unfortunate parent ascending the scaffold! ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... same level, is the Villa Helvetia, a benevolent home for ladies not younger than 18 nor older than 40, who are received for 20s. aweek, which includes everything "except laundress and fire in bedroom." For conditions of admission apply to Ransom, Bouverie, and Co., bankers, London; Mrs. Seton Karr, 30 Lancaster Gate, Hyde Park; or Miss Mackenzie, 16 Moray Place, Edinburgh. Below, on the terrace along the beach, is Christ Church, and adjoining is the Paix, awell-furnished ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... captured, and the emperor, Charles the Fat, was boldly defied. When Charles brought against the plunderers an army large enough to devour them, he was afraid to strike a blow against them, and preferred to buy them off with a ransom of two thousand pounds of gold and silver, all he got in return being their promise to ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 9 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality. Scandinavian. • Charles Morris

... A gallant knight, Fernando de Soto, was sent to the marvellous city of Cuzco—authorized both by the Inca and Pizarro—to despoil the temples of their treasures. Thus enormous hoards of gold and silver were obtained from the sacred buildings and from Atahualpa's loyal subjects as his ransom. ...
— South America • W. H. Koebel

... the strand; sternly the messenger Of the Vikings called in vaunting words, Brought him the boast of the bloody seamen, The errand to the earl, at the edge of the water: "I am sent to thee by seamen bold; 30 They bade me summon thee to send them quickly Rings for a ransom, and rather than fight It is better for you to bargain with gold Than that we should fiercely fight you in battle. It is futile to fight if you fill our demands; 35 If you give us gold we will grant you a truce. If commands thou wilt make, who art mightiest ...
— Old English Poems - Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose • Various

... claimed him as his own. A white man, Nash, about twenty-two who had been taken by the Indians when a child and had become a chief, encouraged him and told him that he would be taken to Detroit where he could ransom himself. He was more than once within a hairsbreadth of death but at length he was brought by his master, Kakinathucca, to his home. He was a great hunter and went every year to Detroit with his furs for sale, taking with him his wife Metsigemawa and a Negro slave. The chief had a daughter ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 • Various

... because of the lasting impression made upon my religious life. Our family, like all others of peasant rank in the land, were plunged into deep distress, and felt the pinch severely, through the failure of the potato, the badness of other crops, and the ransom-price of food. Our father had gone off with work to Hawick, and would return next evening with money and supplies; but meantime the meal barrel ran low, and our dear mother, too proud and too sensitive to let any one know, or to ask aid from any quarter, coaxed us all to rest, ...
— The Story of John G. Paton - Or Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals • James Paton

... taken on the form of an otter. Assisted by his sons Fafnir and Regin, Hreidmar seizes the three gods, and spares their lives only on the promise that they will fill the skin, and also cover it outwardly, with gold. Loki is sent to procure the ransom. With a net borrowed from the sea-goddess Ran he catches at the waterfall the dwarf Andvari in form of a fish and compels him to supply the required gold. Andvari tries to keep back a ring, but this also Loki takes from him, whereupon the dwarf ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... a swiss-muslin curtain, though of course there are many rooms that would welcome no curtains whatever wherein the windows are their own excuse for being. Lace curtains, even if they may have cost a king's ransom, are in questionable taste, to put it mildly. Use all the lace you wish on your bed linen and table linen, but do not hang it up at your windows for passers-by ...
— The House in Good Taste • Elsie de Wolfe

... a policy. It was a business, and often a lucrative business. In the Middle Ages war had been largely a trade. A huge commerce in prisoners was transacted, and an enterprising Italian Condottiere would often recoup himself through the ransom of one single rich prisoner. The Prussians have continued those medieval methods until this day. Treitschke lays it down in his "Politik" that war must be made to pay, and need ...
— German Problems and Personalities • Charles Sarolea

... Caesar. This day, the treasures of the temples and the gold of the King's treasury will be sent to the mint to be melted down for our ransom in the sight of the people. They shall see us sitting under bare walls and drinking from wooden cups. And their wrath be on your head, Caesar, if you ...
— Caesar and Cleopatra • George Bernard Shaw

... and they rode on to a great wood. Then the fox came, and said, 'Pray kill me, and cut off my head and my feet.' But the young man refused to do it: so the fox said, 'I will at any rate give you good counsel: beware of two things; ransom no one from the gallows, and sit down by the side of no river.' Then away he went. 'Well,' thought the young man, 'it is no hard ...
— Grimms' Fairy Tales • The Brothers Grimm

... lungs on the pure atmosphere, we wandered along the beach, ever and anon pausing to admire the strange forms and beautiful colouring of the shells and seaweeds, or to pick up a rare pebble, then shie it away again, little thinking that it might have been a ruby, sapphire, or topaz, worth a king's ransom on the earth. At length the way was barred by the mouth of a broad river, and after a refreshing plunge in the lake, we returned ...
— A Trip to Venus • John Munro

... question over in it," I explained, "and wondering what to answer. Of course, Miss Gilder's rather important, and I believe her father's obsession used to be when she was a child, that she'd be kidnapped for ransom. The 'little sprite of a woman' you admire so much, knew the Gilders in those days. She says that the unfortunate baby used to be dragged about in a kind of caged perambulator, and that some of her nurses were female detectives in disguise, with revolvers ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson

... the request had turned her into ice. When she could speak she said, "Smith, for your inch of steel you have asked what I would not part with to ransom ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon

... ships was taken by a British cruiser at the mouth of the Delaware, in the spring of 1813. Fearing that his prize would be recaptured by an American ship of war if he attempted to send her into port, the English admiral dispatched a flag of truce to Mr. Girard, and proposed to him to ransom the vessel for one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in coin. Girard consented, paid the money, and the ship was allowed to come up to the city. Her cargo consisted of silks, nankeens, and teas, and afforded her owner a profit of half a ...
— Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made • James D. McCabe, Jr.

... any choice? I'll accept the condition because I must. But I've warned you. I suppose I'd better ask at once what the ransom is." ...
— The Pagan Madonna • Harold MacGrath

... the American plantations? No; I always fought fair, and never refused Quarter when mine enemy threw up his point; nor, unless a foeman's death were required for Lawful Reprisals, did I ever deny moderate Ransom. ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... is in harmony with the above-given explanation. The ingratitude of King Charles towards the heroine who had won him his crown is the subject of common historical remark. M. Wallon insists upon the circumstance that, after her capture at Compiegne, no attempts were made by the French Court to ransom her or to liberate her by a bold coup de main. And when, at Rouen, she appealed in the name of the Church to the Pope to grant her a fair trial, not a single letter was written by the Archbishop of Rheims, High Chancellor of France, to his suffragan, the Bishop of ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske

... life, take our lives, kill us, grown mothers and fathers, but let our children live. They have not yet had a chance to live; they are only growing and developing. Do not destroy young lives. Take our lives and our blood as ransom.... ...
— The Red Conspiracy • Joseph J. Mereto

... view, by the unflattering witness, he was made very fully sensible that the great work of salvation rests between the soul of man and his Creator, and that "no man can redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him." Through the night, he was mostly engaged in prayer, with uplifted hands invoking for mercy ...
— The Annual Monitor for 1851 • Anonymous

... WILDS or The Secret of the Mountains Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held for ransom in a ...
— Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest - Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies • Alice B. Emerson

... generally, but friends of the house won't be barred out. The clerk 'll fix it for you. Ransom, the head ...
— The Marrow of Tradition • Charles W. Chesnutt

... and then instead of behaving to them as friends, and showing the duties of hospitality to his guests, treats them as enemies and captives who are at his mercy, and will not release them until they have paid the most unjust, abominable, and extortionate ransom—these are the sort of practises, and foul evils they are, which cast a reproach upon the succour of adversity. And the legislator ought always to be devising a remedy for evils of this nature. There is an ancient saying, ...
— Laws • Plato

... he takes ship in Bohemia, where he happens to be quartered, and has himself carried to Barcelona, and proceeds "to slaughter the Moors forthwith." Then there is a scene in which Isaac of York comes on as a messenger, to ransom from a Spanish knight, Don Beltram de Cuchilla y Trabuco, y Espada, y Espelon, a little Moorish girl. The Spanish knight of course murders the little girl instead of taking the ransom. Two hundred thousand dirhems are offered, however much that may be; but the knight, who happens to be in funds at ...
— Thackeray • Anthony Trollope

... said Porbus to Poussin, seeing that the latter trembled and blushed with shame, for the young scholar had the pride of poverty; "take them, he has the ransom of two kings in ...
— The Hidden Masterpiece • Honore de Balzac

... from Batavia's shore; The thrifty Fleming for my beauty rare Pays a king's ransom, when that I am fair, And tall, and straight, ...
— A Distinguished Provincial at Paris • Honore de Balzac

... becoming a little frequent, a little bold, a little too grim for the white traders' sense of security. The Sandwich Islanders had actually formed the plot of capturing every vessel that came into their harbors and holding the crews for extortionate ransom. How many white men were victims of this plot—to die by the assassin's knife or waiting for the ransom that never came—is not a part of this record. It was becoming a common thing to find white men living in a state of quasi-slavery among the {284} islanders, each white ...
— Vikings of the Pacific - The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward • Agnes C. Laut

... his coat and stepped out into the rain. The chauffeur left his seat and stood in the mud with the air of a patient but rather sulky martyr. What is the use of belonging to the aristocracy of labour, of being a member of the Motor Drivers' Union, of being able to hold up civilisation to ransom, if you are yourself liable to be held up and made to stand in the rain by a common soldier, a man no better than an unskilled labourer. Nothing but the look of the rifle in the unskilled labourer's hand would have induced Simpkins to leave ...
— Lady Bountiful - 1922 • George A. Birmingham

... tone. "We want that chief and his boy, whom you are harboring in your camp. According to our Indian companion, they own, or know of the hiding-place of, a fortune in plumes. If the plumes are not to be easily reached, we can still hold the chief and boy for a big ransom. His people will raise it quick enough, for he is a big man among them." He hesitated and then went on. "The gang said for me to tell you, if the chief and boy were given up, your party would ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... difference, after all. Your lives will do quite as well as the ransom you cannot afford to pay for them. My soldiery like fire and blood and pretty women almost as well as they do gold, and I shall enjoy the spectacle from the castle-walls. As for you, burgomaster, you have something that I covet for my ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach

... were free, But for these last two hundred years has Egra Remained in pledge to the Bohemian crown, 5 Therefore we bear the half eagle, the other half Being cancelled till the empire ransom us, If ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... something; upon nothing; upon REVENGE, which I love; upon LOVE, which I hate, heartily hate, because 'tis my master: and upon the devil knows what besides: for looking back, I am amazed at the length of it. Thou mayest read it: I would not for a king's ransom. But so as I do but write, thou sayest thou ...
— Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9) • Samuel Richardson

... deserved to die, and he took our place. 'He tasted death for every man.' So for you and for me. What do we owe to one who gave his life to ransom ours?" ...
— The House in Town • Susan Warner

... the others, and then to Margarita: 'Look, young mistress! we are poor fellows, and ask a trifle of ransom, and then part friends.' ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... a brown hand coaxingly on her old withered one,—"you'll take good care of him for me, and we'll share the ransom." ...
— Days of the Discoverers • L. Lamprey

... Ransom'd spirit, spread thy wings, Leave thy broken house of clay; Soar from earth and earthly things, To the realms ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... was founded on former treaties, which were now expressly confirmed, from that of Westphalia to the last concluded at London and Vienna. The contracting parties agreed, that all prisoners on each side should be mutually released, without ransom, and all conquests restored; that the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, should be ceded as a settlement to the infant don Philip, and the heirs male of his body; but in case of his ascending the throne of ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... times of stress with regard to all applicants, and at all times with regard to any applicant who was "in a tight place," that he will extort as the price of indispensable help a theoretically unlimited ransom. ...
— War-Time Financial Problems • Hartley Withers

... against them, and several times attempted to make a stand but were defeated with great loss. The principal towns were found deserted, and even Poix, which offered great capabilities of defence, had been left unguarded. Upon the English entering, the burghers offered to pay a large ransom to save the town from plunder. The money was to be delivered as soon as the English force had withdrawn, and Walter Somers was ordered by the king to remain behind with a few ...
— Saint George for England • G. A. Henty

... Hahn looked at each other, greed rising in their eyes. They had no love for the partners of the Three Star nor for Molly Casey. A big ransom was possible if it ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn

... tortured their minds. The whole party remained in the kitchen engaging in endless discussions, imagining the most improbable things. Were they to be kept as hostages?—but if so, to what end?—or taken prisoners—or asked a large ransom? This last suggestion threw them into a cold perspiration of fear. The wealthiest were seized with the worst panic and saw themselves forced, if they valued their lives, to empty bags of gold into the rapacious hands of this soldier. ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... planned a fake robbery of a fortune in radiumized mercury stored at Spawn's mine, to collect the insurance on it and escape paying the Government export fee: and that they, plan to kidnap Grant for ransom. ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, October, 1930 • Various

... a ganger or a constable who is diverted on an errand of the king's, a merchant has ransomed him and caused him to regain his city, if in his house there is means for his ransom, he shall ransom his own self; if in his house there is no means for his ransom, he shall be ransomed from the temple of his city; if in the temple of his city there is not means for his ransom, the palace shall ransom him. ...
— The Oldest Code of Laws in the World - The code of laws promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon - B.C. 2285-2242 • Hammurabi, King of Babylon

... transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. They pierced my hands and my feet." The record says: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." "And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know ...
— Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith - Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity • Robert Patterson

... in his absence. Hence Eusebius says: "Since He was going to withdraw His assumed body from their eyes, and bear it away to the stars, it was needful that on the day of the supper He should consecrate the sacrament of His body and blood for our sakes, in order that what was once offered up for our ransom should be fittingly worshiped ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... safer and cheaper for the United States to give up ships altogether, and to get other people to carry for them. Consequently the plan of negotiating was resorted to. Agents were sent to Algiers to ransom the captives and to obtain a treaty by presents and the payment of a fixed tribute. Such a treaty was made in the summer of 1796. In March of the succeeding year, the Dey showed so much ill-temper at the backwardness of our payments, that Joel Barlow, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, No. 38, December, 1860 • Various

... said—'either her life, and all she has, given to this new Service; or a ransom if I give her ...
— The Convert • Elizabeth Robins

... to the Correspondent of the Times, recounting the "recent railway outrage in Turkey," the Brigands "chose five of the most opulent-looking of their victims, and told them that they meant to hold them to ransom." I am not surprised at this occurrence, for something of the same sort once happened to me. I am very well to do, and I am fond of what I believe is vulgarly called "globe-trotting." I do not care to be encumbered ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, 13 June 1891 • Various

... whether the love of fame or pecuniary interest prompted this declaration at so awful a moment; but his motive, like those of most other human actions, was probably of a mixed nature; for whatever might be the renown which was attached to the exploit, the ransom to which the true claimant would be entitled must have been an object of great consideration to him or to his heirs. Du Troy carefully provides, that those who would support his pretensions with their swords should ...
— A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 • Anonymous

... therefore, are enduring and unclouded. He accepts his trials as privileges; he loses all sense of his own identity; his humanity is merged in God; his ecstasies lift him up to heaven and bring him down to a transfigured earth. He has been bought with a ransom, and he is the co-heir with Christ. He is found worthy of suffering. But with artists, all is different. The saint is in search of holiness. The artist thinks chiefly of beauty. Holiness is a state of mind—it is something permanent. Beauty, however, mocks one half ...
— Robert Orange - Being a Continuation of the History of Robert Orange • John Oliver Hobbes

... own act, Irons. I did not want it; but I'll protect myself, and won't hold my life on ransom, at the hands of a Jew or a Judas," said he, smiling through his black hair, ...
— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... to his fellow-captives, they directed him to inform the chief that he was welcome to the horses, guns, and other property, if he would let them depart, and they would promise never to return to his country or trouble him any more. Moreover, they would send him a present, by way of ransom ...
— The Giraffe Hunters • Mayne Reid

... Son, and Holy Ghost! The name thrice holy given, On earth by all the ransom'd host, And by the hosts of heaven. He's Abraham's and Isaac's God, And Jacob's whom He knoweth, The Lord of Hosts, who every good Both night and day bestoweth, Who ...
— Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs - Translated by John Kelly • Paul Gerhardt

... path. If military arrangements occupy so considerable a place in the domestic policy of nations, the actual consequences of war are equally important in the history of mankind. Glory and spoil were the earliest subject of quarrels: a concession of superiority, or a ransom, were the prices of peace. The love of safety, and the desire of dominion, equally lead mankind to wish for accessions of strength. Whether as victors or as vanquished, they tend to a coalition; and powerful nations considering a ...
— An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Eighth Edition • Adam Ferguson, L.L.D.

... must e'en warm my wit, Since what's left of youth's flame is a head flecked with ashes. I remember I sat in this very same inn,— I was young then, and one young man thought I was handsome,— I had found out what prison King Richard was in, And was spurring for England to push on the ransom. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 • Various

... Well, I guess I will! You can't lose me! I'm not going to be captured by those smugglers. I'd be a valuable man for them to have as a hostage. They'd probably ask a million dollars ransom for me," and Mr. Period carefully straightened his ...
— Tom Swift and his Great Searchlight • Victor Appleton

... be a man of ill principles,' thought it improper to order any man on such a risky service, but Lieutenant Mackintosh, in consideration of a gratuity of one thousand rupees, undertook to go, and departed for Colaba, with Rs.30,000 as ransom for the European prisoners, the convention sealed with the Council's seal, and ships to ...
— The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago • John Biddulph

... riches as never was gathered together in one place since the beginning of the world. And his order was that if even the power of the army which should go forth from that city sufficed not to conquer the foreign foemen, then should this vast treasure be used to buy his people's ransom, that they might not perish nor ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier

... furnished me with opportunities for making money. It is very possible that I have screwed the vise a little hard sometimes. But the matter must not be judged with the eyes of a European. The enormous profits that the Levantines make are a well-known and recognized thing over yonder; they are the ransom of the savages whom we introduce to western comforts. This wretched Hemerlingue, who is suggesting all this persecution of me to the bey, has done very much worse things. But what's the use of arguing? ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet

... of the French revolution. This revolution was sealed by a treaty, signed in May, 1797, between Buonaparte and commissioners appointed on the part of the new and revolutionary Government of Venice. By the second and third secret articles of this treaty, Venice agreed to give as a ransom, to secure itself against all farther exactions or demands, the sum of three millions of livres in money, the value of three millions more in articles of naval supply, and three ships of the line; and it received in return the ...
— Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914 • Edgar Jones

... If such an official has been assigned to the king's service (and captured by the enemy) and has been ransomed by a merchant and helped to regain his city, if he has had means in his house to pay his ransom, he himself shall do so. If he has not had means of his own, he shall be ransomed by the temple treasury. If there has not been means in the temple treasury of his city, the state will ransom him. His field, garden, or house shall not be given ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns

... nobody can defend for running away from their duties as citizens, became brigands. A cynical German, who was taken by them some years ago on the road to Castellamare, a few miles above here, and held for ransom, declared that they were the most honest fellows he had seen in Italy; but I never could see that he intended the remark as any compliment to them. It is certain that the inhabitants of all these towns held very loose ideas on the subject of brigandage: the poor fellows, they used ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... On what, then, said one of the company did you fix your attention? "On him," replied she, (referring to the generous speech which her husband had just made,) "who said he would give a thousand lives to ransom my liberty." "Oh," cried the colonel, when reading it, "how ought we to fix our eyes and hearts on Him who, not in offer, but in reality, gave his own precious life to ransom us from the most dreadful slavery, and from eternal destruction!" ...
— The Life of Col. James Gardiner - Who Was Slain at the Battle of Prestonpans, September 21, 1745 • P. Doddridge

... brilliant and most celebrated of the counts passed his youth; and it was from here that he set out on his famous expedition to aid his brother knights of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. At Gaston's orders the Comte d'Armagnac was imprisoned here, to be released after the payment of a heavy ransom. As to the motive for this particular act, authorities differ as to whether it was the fortune of ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 (of 10) • Various

... Leezie Lindsay, kilting her coats of green satin to follow her Lord Ronald Macdonald the weary way to the Highland Border; and to its plainstanes came the faithful Lady of Gicht to ransom her Geordie: ...
— The Balladists - Famous Scots Series • John Geddie

... narrowly escaped paying for it with his life. It seems that the news of "Rich Spencer's" wealth had travelled as far as the Continent, and there tempted the cupidity of a notorious Dunkirk pirate, who conceived the bold idea of kidnapping the merchant and holding him to a heavy ransom. How the attempt was made, and how providentially it failed is ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall

... princes who were prisoners there. Duke Theseus had brought them from Thebes. He was very proud of them, and would not give them up, although the people of their land offered to give him gold and jewels for their ransom. The princes were cousins, and were the last of the royal line of Thebes. In the stillness Emelia murmured their names to herself, "Palamon and Arcite, Palamon and Arcite. How miserable they must be in their narrow cell!" she thought. Then she sighed that life should be so ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... proper, that she felt convinced, whenever she entertained the idea of tendering him advice, that he would not listen to her. On this day, by a strange coincidence, came about the discussion respecting her ransom, and she designedly made use, in the first instance, of deception with a view to ascertain his feelings, to suppress his temper, and to be able subsequently to extend to him some words of admonition; and when she perceived that Pao-y had now silently gone ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... not, however, make the mischief less: and it is strange, if we think of it, to see Italy, with all her precious works of art, made a continual battle-field; as if no other place for settling their disputes could be found by the European powers, than where every random shot may destroy what a king's ransom cannot restore.[62] It is exactly as if the tumults in Paris could he settled no otherwise than by fighting them out in the Gallery of ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) • John Ruskin

... be chiefest," He said, "shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom ...
— Child's Story of the Bible • Mary A. Lathbury

... reality no lunatic projector, not Cleombrotus leaping into the sea for the sake of Plato's Elysium, not Erostratus committing arson at Ephesus for posthumous fame, not a sick Mr Elwes ascending the Himalaya, in order to use the rarity of the atmosphere as a ransom from the expense of cupping in Calcutta, ever conceived so awful a folly. Oh, playful Sir John Mandeville, sagacious Don Quixote, modest and ingenious Baron Munchausen!—ye were sober men, almost dull men, by comparison with the tete exaltee from some upper element of fire, or limbo of the ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various

... and even in thine own country bethink thee of me upon a time, for that to me first thou owest the ransom of life.' ...
— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.

... of Puntal, where the admiral's ship and another first-rate were set on fire by their own crews, and the rest run aground. Of these, two fine ships fell into the hands of the English; and the lord admiral having refused to accept of any ransom for the remainder, saying that he came to consume and not to compound, they were all, to the number of fifty, burned ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... marked feature of their character; and in war they seldom kill their prisoners. When a man is convicted of murder, he is handed over to the relatives of the deceased, who may either put him to death or accept a ransom. When the murdered person has no relatives, the priests take upon themselves the office of avengers. The natural indolence of the people has been fostered by the constant wars, which have discouraged peaceful occupations. The soldiers live by plunder, the monks by alms. ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... the birds, the fishes she lived on, and she be bred amidst running sores and vermin, was one of the mysteries I pondered over when we took to our canoes. For such a pair of eyes, for those exquisite features, some scraggy denizen of Vanity Fair would have given a king's ransom. Yet here was a thing of beauty, dropped by a vile freak of Nature into an appalling environment of filth and ignorance; a creature destined, no doubt, to spring into mature womanhood, and lapse, in time, into a counterpart of the bleared Hecate who mumbled her Cree philippics ...
— Through the Mackenzie Basin - A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899 • Charles Mair

... sacrifice, The ransom of man's guilt, For they give my life to the altar-knife Wherever ...
— Songs from Books • Rudyard Kipling

... soothed me; my grief looked sublime As the ransom of Italy. One boy remained To be leant on and walked with, recalling the time When the first grew immortal, while both of us strained To the height ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... definitely broke the boundaries of the Empire, and they and the Ostrogoths now moved southward and settled in Moesia and Thrace. The Germans at Adrianople learned that they could beat the Roman legions, and from this time on it was they, and not the Romans, who named the terms of ransom and the price of peace. A few years later, under Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Greece, then turned westward through Illyria to the valley of the Po, in northern Italy, which they reached in the year 400. In 410 the great calamity came when they captured and sacked Rome. The effect produced ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... satisfied the Bulgarians stole the girl. The Turks have her; and now for a third part of either of the rewards he offers, the Prince of India, whoever he is, can ransom her. He will have plenty of time. There is no such thing as haste in ...
— The Prince of India - Or - Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 2 • Lew. Wallace

... created the rank of Lieutenant General, raised Longstreet and Jackson to that grade in Lee's Army. Longstreet's Corps consisted of McLaws' Division, composed of Kershaw's, Barksdale's, Cobb's, and Semmes' Brigades, and Anderson's, Hood's, Pickett's, and Ransom's Divisions. Jackson's Corps consisted of D.H. Hill's, A.P. Hill's, Ewell's, and Taliaferro's Divisions. We marched by way of Chester Gap over the Blue Ridge, and came into camp near Culpepper on the 9th of November. ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert

... she'll be kidnapped, and held for a big ransom. No, I never saw her, but I've got the thing down to a dot. Wouldn't I like to interview her, though, get her story, how the world looks to her. Under surveillance for sixteen years! The 'Prisoner of Chillon' is ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... population, to marry and settle down among them. But the followers of John were Norman and French knights, accustomed to fight in full armour upon the plains of France; and to add to a rich pay the richer profits of plunder and of ransom. The seaport towns and the castles fell into the hands of new masters, untrained to the work required of them. "Wordy chatterers, swearers of enormous oaths, despisers of others," as they seemed to the race ...
— Henry the Second • Mrs. J. R. Green

... every Spanish ship that passed which was not too strong to be meddled with. The cargoes taken were openly sold in Dover market. If the Spanish ambassador is to be believed in a complaint which he addressed to Cecil, Spanish gentlemen taken prisoners were set up to public auction there for the ransom which they would fetch, and were disposed of for one hundred pounds each. If Alva sent cruisers from Antwerp to burn them out, they retreated under the guns of Dover Castle. Roving squadrons of them flew down to the Spanish coasts, pillaged churches, carried off church plate, and ...
— English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century - Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4 • James Anthony Froude

... sacked the whole Borgo and killed almost every one they found... All the monasteries were rifled, and the ladies who had taken refuge in them carried off. Every person was compelled by torture to pay a ransom.... The ornaments of all the churches were pillaged and the relics and other things thrown into the sinks and cesspools. Even the holy places were sacked. The Church of St. Peter and the papal palace, from the basement to the top, were turned into stables ...
— Henry VIII. • A. F. Pollard

... it had been unclean. There was a great bed whose lines suggested sinking softness, a glaring yellow satin coverlet, vast, like a sea. The walls were covered with yellow satin, the windows draped with lace worth a king's ransom, the light was softened, the air dead, the sounds hung slumbrously. And, in the centre of it, that motionless body. It stirred, pivoted on some central axis beneath the rug, and faced me sitting. There was no look of inquiry in the bloodshot eyes—they turned dully upon me, ...
— The Inheritors • Joseph Conrad

... which I have been speaking of, takes me back to the time when I was up at the University of London, a candidate for honours in anatomy and physiology, and when I was exceedingly well beaten by my excellent friend, Dr. Ransom, of Nottingham. There is a person here who recollects that circumstance very well. I refer to your venerated teacher and mine, Dr. Sharpey. He was at that time one of the examiners in anatomy and ...
— Science & Education • Thomas H. Huxley

... All Through the Night The Gold Shoe Astra Homing Blue Ruin Job's Niece Challengers The Man of the Desert Coming Through the Rye More Than Conqueror Daphne Deane A New Name The Enchanted Barn The Patch of Blue Girl from Montana The Ransom Rose Galbraith The Witness Sound of the Trumpet Sunrise Tomorrow About This Time Amorelle Head of the House Ariel Custer In Tune with Wedding Bells Chance of a Lifetime Maris Crimson Mountain Out of the Storm Exit Betty Mystery Flowers The Prodigal Girl Girl of ...
— Exit Betty • Grace Livingston Hill

... offer more opportunity for debate to consider what a captive ought to do, if a man of abominable vices offers him the price of his ransom? Shall I permit myself to be saved by a wretch? When safe, what recompense can I make to him? Am I to live with an infamous person? Yet, am I not to live with my preserver? I will tell you my opinion. I would accept money, even from such a person, if it were ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... mood and susceptible of impressions. But he is an advocate of Non-Intercourse. The officers of the Revenue, notwithstanding they were in such a taking fit, and had conceived such vain & high blown hope of the immense wealth they should receive as the ransom of their Captives, have not half so good a chance of a prize as those adventurers who will call at Cushing and Appleton's, one door west of central Building, and purchase a Ticket or quarter in Harvard ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 1: Curiosities of the Old Lottery • Henry M. Brooks

... all along the routes, and everywhere we go we have to take food and blankets in case of a camp out. I have had to buy a motor-car, and I got a very good one in Tiflis, but they are so scarce one has to pay a ransom for them. I am hoping it won't be quite smashed up, and that I shall be able to sell it for something ...
— My War Experiences in Two Continents • Sarah Macnaughtan

... was unfavourable to merriment, and raw despondency filled his soul. This was the end of his fine doings. The prisoner of unknown bandits, hurried he knew not whence, a pretty pass for an adventurer. This was the seal on his ineffectiveness. Shot against a rock, held up to some sordid ransom, he was as impotent for good or ill as if he had stayed at home. For a second he longed to pull horse and captor with one wrench over the brink to the kindly gulf ...
— The Half-Hearted • John Buchan

... and children of Quibian, and several of his principal subjects. No one was wounded, for there was no resistance, and the Adelantado never permitted wanton bloodshed. When the poor savages saw their prince a captive, they filled the air with lamentations; imploring his release, and offering for his ransom a great treasure, which they said lay concealed in ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving

... the dawn, did she behold, Through the green leaves, a glimmer as of gold, And, passing on, amidst an oak-grove found A pillared temple gold-adorned and round, Whose walls were hung with rich and precious things, Worthy to be the ransom of great kings; And in the midst of gold and ivory An image of Queen Juno did she see; Then her heart swelled within her, and she thought, "Surely the gods hereto my steps have brought, And they will yet be merciful and give ...
— The Earthly Paradise - A Poem • William Morris

... wishes of their ancestor. Guide them, that they may join their charitable hearts, their powerful strength, their best wisdom, and their immense wealth, and work together for the future happiness of mankind, thereby, perhaps, enabled to ransom me from my eternal penalties. Let those divine words of the Son of Man, 'Love ye one another!' be their only aim; and by the assistance of their all-powerful words, let them contend against and vanquish those false priests who have trampled ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... woollen and cotton goods; they made pottery as beautiful as the wares of Egypt; they manufactured glass; they engraved gems and precious stones. The Peruvians had such immense numbers of vessels and ornaments of gold that the Inca paid with them a ransom for himself to Pizarro of the value of fifteen ...
— The Antediluvian World • Ignatius Donnelly

... there was no natural glut became artificially glutted, till their prices also were broken down, and their makers thrown out of work and deprived of income. The crisis was by this time fairly under way, and nothing could check it till a nation's ransom had been wasted. ...
— Looking Backward - 2000-1887 • Edward Bellamy

... republic, and ten of the principal members of the tribe were to be delivered up as hostages for their future good behaviour. The next day the hostages were brought into the camp with a portion of the ransom; and Hamilcar, having thus accomplished the mission he had been charged to perform, marched away with ...
— The Young Carthaginian - A Story of The Times of Hannibal • G.A. Henty

... all and gladly. If this bitter strife May so by one brief hour be sooner stayed, Then is your offering, spent to ransom life, A thousand ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, February 14, 1917 • Various

... of thyself, Spendthrift of all the love in thee, Sold unto sin for little pelf, The captain Christ shall ransom thee. ...
— Changing Winds - A Novel • St. John G. Ervine

... answered, reassuringly. "Did not Loge promise to ransom thee? He will be here presently. Have no fear." Nevertheless Wotan, himself, was not too confident, and he looked anxiously for the Spirit of Flame. Meantime the Giants were striding over ...
— Operas Every Child Should Know - Descriptions of the Text and Music of Some of the Most Famous Masterpieces • Mary Schell Hoke Bacon

... visits to the country we were liable to be seized at any time and held to ransom; and the people commonly declared that the whole district was "without emperor, without ruler, and without law." Certainly, might was right in those days. On one occasion we were visiting a small town, and found that the inhabitants had captured a wealthy man of ...
— A Retrospect • James Hudson Taylor

... fierce with voice of woe, Proclaiming he would give his own young son Into their power as ransom for his life. 1110 With thankful hearts they took his offering, For greedily they lusted after food, Sad-minded men; no joy had they in wealth, Nor hope in hoarded riches; they were sore Oppressed with hunger, for the famine dire Held cruel sway. Then many a warrior And hero battle-bold ...
— Andreas: The Legend of St. Andrew • Unknown

... her jewels clothed her. Their authentic fire seemed to blaze out of herself—to be fed by her. And each one of them, no doubt, had its romance—its scandal. That rope of pearls in itself was a king's ransom. People nudged each other. It was part of the show that she should ...
— The Dark House • I. A. R. Wylie

... Milnwood returned at this instant, and, alarmed at the preparations he beheld, hastened to proffer to Bothwell, though with many a grievous groan, the purse of gold which he had been obliged to rummage out as ransom for his nephew. The trooper took the purse with an air of indifference, weighed it in his hand, chucked it up into the air, and caught it as it fell, then shook his head, and said, "There's many a merry night in this nest of yellow boys, ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... of Slaves. Cruel Treatment of Adams. Murder of Dolbie. Characteristics of European Slaves. Ransom of Adams. Return of Adams to ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish

... hand lie the accumulated riches of time. Compare our libraries, with their crowded volumes of ancient and modern learning, with the bare cell of the solitary Friar, in which, in a single small cupboard, are laid away a few imperfect manuscripts, precious as a king's ransom, which it had been the labor of years to collect. This very volume of his works, a noble monument of patient labor, of careful investigation, of deep thought, costs us but a trivial sum; while its author, in his poverty, was scarcely able, without begging, to pay for the parchment upon ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, No. 38, December, 1860 • Various

... where Washington met Braddock to prepare for the expedition against Fort Duquesne. This town was twice taken by the Confederates and when occupied by the troops of General Early the inhabitants were forced to pay a ransom of two hundred thousand dollars. It was occupied ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand

... in. At first he thought it was only a joke, and it amused him; but when they began to laugh heartily and putting their tongues at him, as if he had been a monkey in a cage, and overwhelmed him with insults, he first of all grew angry, and then humble, offering to pay well for his ransom, and he implored them to let him out, and tried to escape like a mouse does out of a trap. They, however, did not appear to hear him, but naively bowed to him ceremoniously, wished him good night, and ran out as fast ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume III (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... for his brother, Gunnlaug; but Sverting, Hafr-Biorn's son, was Raven's shield-bearer. Whoso should be wounded was to ransom himself from the holm with ...
— The Story Of Gunnlaug The Worm-Tongue And Raven The Skald - 1875 • Anonymous

... finally sent Roland, his nephew and favorite, bidding him offer a rich ransom to atone for the murder of Lord Hug, and instructing him to secure peace at any price. Aymon at first refused these overtures, but consented at last to cease the feud upon receipt of six times Lord Hug's weight in gold, and the hand of the king's sister, ...
— Legends of the Middle Ages - Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art • H.A. Guerber

... When no love taught us beseeching, and we had no troth to recall. Ye have changed the world, and it bindeth with the right and the wrong ye have made, Nor may ye be Gods henceforward save the rightful ransom be paid. But perchance ye are weary of kingship, and will deal no more with the earth? Then curse the world, and depart, and sit in your changeless mirth; And there shall be no more kings, and battle and murder shall fail, And the world shall laugh and ...
— The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs • William Morris

... the worms found in these summer sores are probably larval forms of the stomach worms of the horse, Habronema megastoma, H. microstoma, and H. muscae. Ransom has shown that the larval stage of H. muscae develops in the common housefly, the fly becoming infested as a maggot in horse manure. Infestation with the adult worms in the stomach of the horse (Pl. V, fig. 4) may take place through the ingestion ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture

... loveth much," said our blessed Saviour; and in Derry this truth was abundantly verified. The Christ whose blood could wash such as he, was a Lord for whom he was willing to suffer even unto death. The mercy that could stoop to ransom such a transgressor, claimed an affection before which poor Derry's deep love for his earthly darling paled, as the things of time fade into insignificance ...
— The Boy Patriot • Edward Sylvester Ellis

... remembered, escaped the day before, had taken refuge in one of them. This being agreed to, a house-to-house visitation was begun: when the house of M. de Sauvignargues was reached, he confessed that the bishop was in his cellar, and proposed to treat with Captain Bouillargues for a ransom. This proposition being considered reasonable, was accepted, and after a short discussion the sum of 120 crowns was agreed on. The bishop laid down every penny he had about him, his servants were despoiled, and the sum made up by the Sieur de Sauvignargues, who having the bishop ...
— Massacres Of The South (1551-1815) - Celebrated Crimes • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... Who knoweth ransom is none for him, Maketh in battle resistance grim; The Franks like wrathful lions strike, But King Marsil beareth him baron-like; He bestrideth his charger, Gaignon hight, And he pricketh him hard, Sir Beuve to smite, The Lord of Beaune and of Dijon town, Through shield and ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various

... was," said old Timothy Ransom. "To be sure he was. But I'll tell you all I know about the matter. I was at work on my farm when I heard of the battle of Lexington. I belonged to a regiment of militia that used to meet for drill on a neighbouring farm. Ethan Allen was the Colonel, and ...
— The Yankee Tea-party - Or, Boston in 1773 • Henry C. Watson

... these, they would return with a poor soul, his hands tied behind his back and his feet beneath the horse's body, his fur cloak and his flat cap wofully awry. A while he would disappear in some gloomy cell of the dungeon-keep, until an envoy would come from the town with a fat purse, when his ransom would be paid, the dungeon would disgorge him, and he would be allowed to ...
— Otto of the Silver Hand • Howard Pyle

... in the crowd had been of such deep interest to the wearer of the scarlet letter. He was lodged in the prison, not as suspected of any offence, but as the most convenient and suitable mode of disposing of him, until the magistrates should have conferred with the Indian sagamores respecting his ransom. His name was announced as Roger Chillingworth. The jailer, after ushering him into the room, remained a moment, marvelling at the comparative quiet that followed his entrance; for Hester Prynne had immediately become as still as death, although ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... which have now to be narrated, it must be remembered that the Chamberlain of 1880 was not yet the author of any "unauthorized programme" or any "gospel of ransom." He was admittedly the controller of the Caucus. It was widely known that he, like Fawcett, had professed republican principles. But Queen Victoria's objection to Sir Charles Dilke—and it will be seen how strongly ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn

... those for whom we had searched so long. Mr Aylett, however, gave us no hope of success. "It would be impossible even to communicate with them," he observed; "the only chance would be to send a message to their owner, and to offer a large sum for their ransom." How this message was to be sent was the question. Aylett pointed out that were he to go he should be immediately seized as a deserter and lose his life, while any other Englishman who might set foot in the country would ...
— The Boy who sailed with Blake • W.H.G. Kingston



Words linked to "Ransom" :   king's ransom, offence, defrayal, offense, law-breaking, payment, exchange, retrieval, criminal offence, cost, ransom money, crime, interchange, redeem, change, criminal offense, defrayment



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