It is true that the introduction of German cookery into France by the Prussians, as you propose, would in a short time decimate the population, but what a fearful precedent it would be!

"My dear Lyndon," he said, "in return for what you've done for us, you could decimate the police force if you wanted to."

The Emperor Charlemagne, though naturally generous and humane, had been induced by bigotry to exercise great severities upon the pagan Saxons in Germany, whom he subdued; and besides often ravaging their country with fire and sword, he had in cool blood decimated all the inhabitants for their revolts, and had obliged them, by the most rigorous edicts, to make a seeming compliance with the Christian doctrine.

Having wiped out the batteries the yeomen again answered the call of their leader and swept up a ridge to deal effectively with three machine guns, and having used the white arm against their crews the guns were turned on to the retreating Turks and decimated their ranks.

His wars, from which he expected glory, ended only in shame; his great generals passed away without any to take their place; his people, instead of being enriched by a development of national resources, became poor and discontented; while his persecutions decimated his subjects and sowed the seeds of future calamities.

Then again the kingdom of David was afflicted with a grievous famine, which lasted three years, decimating the people, and giving a check to the national prosperity; and the Philistines, too, whom he thought he had finally subdued, renewed their ancient warfare.

All kinds of calamities overspread the earth and decimated the race,war, pestilence, and famine.

The people are, of course, told, with suitable statistics, how famine is decimating England and France, and how the total starvation of those unfortunate countries is imminent.

The Wars of the Roses, the massacres of the Reformation, and the Civil Wars in England; the Thirty Years' War in Germany; the Hundred Years' War, the Wars of Religion, and the Revolution in France had decimated the families old in honour, preserving the tradition of culture, jealous of their alliances and their breedingthe natural and actual leaders in thought and action.

'Every rainy spring we are told that all the young birds have been drowned, or that the grouse-disease has decimated the fathers and mothers, and that we shall have nothing to shoot; but when August comes the birds are there all the same.

"Enough to decimate France," he said, screwed the stopper carefully into place, and put the flask in his pocket.

But Mr. Downing saw in his attack the beginnings of some deadly scourge which would sweep through and decimate the house.

Even he had no protection and no safety; for any new excursion of less fortunate barbarians would desolate his possessions and decimate his laborers.

Once start him at the water supply, and before we could ring him in, and catch him again, he would have decimated the metropolis.

Neither high blood nor ancient title shall suffice to screen a traitor; war, war to the death, shall be henceforward my battle-cry against the malcontents who are striving to decimate the nation; and do not delude yourselves with the belief that I shall be single-handed in the struggle, for I will call the people to my aid, and the people will maintain the cause of their sovereigns.

The citizens were as incapable of framing a new constitution as the legislators of France after they had decimated the nobility, confiscated the Church lands, and cut off the head of the king.

Its long growing season, hot in summer by day and night, was perfectly congenial to the plant, its dry autumns permitted the reaping of full harvests, and its frosty winters decimated the insect pests.

In 1852 and again in 1854 storms and freshets heavily injured Manigault's crops, and cholera decimated his slaves.

Man's top negative priority at the present moment is to reject the wiles, the temptations, the mortal conflicts and the annihilative destruction which have disrupted and decimated civilized society during the past six thousand years and reached their apex in the Great Revolution of 1750-1970.

The horses, assailed by a distemper in their hoofs, fell in heaps; various diseases decimated the soldiers; Hannibal himself lost an eye in consequence of ophthalmia.

Meanwhile, the hardships which thus decimate the tribe toughen the survivors, and sometimes give them an apparent advantage over civilized men.

"There, then, my reign is finished, or nearly so, for the good news that I continued to receive (though always without foundation, as I learned afterwards), joined to the entreaties of Hazir All Khan and to the unhealthy air which continued to decimate my poor little troop, induced me at last to abandon my fort, to embark again upon my boats, and to reapproach Bengal, from which I had hitherto been travelling away.

" This did not seem to me consistent with the confession that disorders of one kind or another still not infrequently decimate their highly-bred domestic animals, however the human race itself may have been secured against contagion.

For "auld lang syne" I'll not maltreat Yon pseudo-Tinker, though the Cheat, Ay sly as thievish Reynard, Instead of mending kettles, prowls To make foul havock of my fowls, And decimate my hen-yard.

Fortunately both of them had so far escaped the illnesses which had already decimated the army.