While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther for me.
Aesop’s Fables by Aesop
A Fox was boasting to a Cat of its clever devices for escaping its enemies. ‘I have a whole bag of tricks,’ he said, ‘which contains a hundred ways of escaping my enemies.’
Memoirs of Fanny Hill by John Cleland
He made suppers at my lodging, where he brought several companions of his pleasures, with their mistresses; and by this means I got into a circle of acquaintance, that soon stripped me of all the remains of bashfulness and modesty which might be yet left of my country education, and were, to a just taste, perhaps, the greatest of my charms.