He denied having committed any theft, and said the pretence that he had done so was a mere trick, often resorted to by slaveholders, when they wanted to catch a runaway slave.

O Piso, that vouchsafest To grace our headlesse partie with thy name, Whom having our conductor we need not Have fear'd to goe against the well try'd vallor Of Julius or stayednesse of Augustus, Much lesse the shame and Womanhood of Nero; When we had once given out that our pretences Were all for thee, our end to make thee Prince, They thronging came to give their names, Men, Women, Gentlemen, People, Soldiers, Senators,[30]

Thus the pretence of sexual intercourse between the parents or other relatives of the girl was a magical ceremony to ensure her fertility.

The pretence might, if occasion served, become a reality, to be sure, but the attempt must be as public as possible.

The specious pretence on which this bill is founded, and, indeed, the only pretence that deserves to be termed specious, is the propriety of taxing vice; but this maxim of government has, on this occasion, been either mistaken or perverted.

11.If we turn to the Latin syntax, to determine by analogy what case is used, or ought to be used, after our English interjections, in stead of finding a "perfect accordance" between that syntax and the rule for which such accordance has been claimed, we see at once an utter repugnance, and that the pretence of their agreement is only a sample of Kirkham's unconscionable pedantry.

His most unfaithful act is, that he leaves a man gasping, and his pretence is, death and he have a quarrel and must not meet; but his fear is, lest the carcase should bleed.

But to clear up this palpable cheat to my man Friday, I told him, "that the pretence of their ancient men going up to the mountain to say O to their God Benamuckee was an imposture, and that their bringing back an answer was all a sham, if not worse; for that, if there was any such thing spoken to them, surely it must proceed from an infernal spirit."

The pretence is the getting masters from Edinburgh for the children.