I had graver thoughts to occupy my mind than the punctilios of idle youth, and yet I did not see how the thing could have been shunned.

Weak as I was, I had the fierce satisfaction that our errand had not been idle.

We had gone too far to turn back, and, as our proverb says, "It is idle to swallow the cow and choke on the tail.

" I knew it was idle to protest.

But you would not have me stay idle when my plain duty commands.

I told myself that Ringan would never have countenanced this idle grief.

My pistols hung idle, and the ropes drove the hafts into my flesh.

St. Leger's promises would be as the idle wind when Thayendanega's followers wanted victims for the stake!"

I was sick at heart and literally faint with fear when this knowledge was forced in upon me, for I knew only too well how idle would be all the promises of St. Leger if the savages were inclined to massacre the prisoners that were surrendered on promises of fair treatment.

He began by saying that it was the opinion of himself and his staff that the men ought to know exactly the condition of affairs, lest they be led astray by idle fears, and to that end he called upon the quartermaster for a detailed statement of the amount of eatables then on hand.

"If those who are to suffer were Colonel Gansevoort's nearest friends, still must he remain here idle rather than put in jeopardy all the garrison.

All knew that we inside the fortification were powerless to aid those who had wilfully gone to their doom, and none better than those same brave fellows who were ready to risk their lives in behalf of comrades who would have worked disaster to the entire garrison, yet they could not stand idle without at least a show of willingness to face danger in the hope of saving life.

I was literally sickened by the horrible scene, and began to wish most fervently that I had been the one to draw the shortest twig, for it was by no means agreeable to remain there idle while murder was being done, even though it was a bitter enemy who had thus been cowardly done to death.

Yet, lest any should say that the Emperor neglects his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer thy invention to the chief armourers of my capital.

It was at once understood that the new conqueror would not remain idle within the crumbling walls of Constantinople.

King James was flying; the Dutchmen were coming; awful stories about them and the Prince of Orange Mrs. Worksop used to tell to the idle little page, who enjoyed the exciting narratives.

Under these circumstances it is idle to speak of this well-known relief picture as a portrait of the Queen.

Cæsar too had known and loved him from his childhood; but the stories which are related to account for this attachment must be rejected as foolish inventions of idle persons; for nothing is more natural than that Cæsar should look with great fondness upon a young man of such extraordinary and amiable qualities.

Meanwhile Harold had not been idle.

We are here in a most pleasant country, full of walks, and idle to our heart's desire.

An' so he did try; for there's not an idle bone in that same boy's skin.

For Ulysses had concealed from them the wounds, never to be healed, which Scylla was to open: their terror would else have robbed them all of all care to steer, or move an oar, and have made them hide under the hatches, for fear of seeing her, where he and they must have died an idle death.

I have not been idle.

It may be urged, my lords, I own, that all inquiries into futurity are idle speculations; that the expedient proposed is proper on the present occasion, and that no methods of justice are to be allowed, if the possibility of applying them to bad purposes, is a sufficient reason for rejecting them.

and how much would our wealth be increased, by saving those sums which are yearly squandered in idle expeditions, or in negotiations equally useless, and, perhaps, equally expensive?