William Hickling Prescott
Historian, 1796-1859
Cited as Prescott. — 134 quotations
Accomplish
He had accomplished half a league or more.
Adulteration
The shameless adulteration of the coin.
Advance
Advanced to a level with ancient peers.
Advantageous
Advabtageous comparison with any other country.
Aggrandize
His scheme for aggrandizing his son.
Aggravate
To aggravate the horrors of the scene.
Apathy
A certain apathy or sluggishness in his nature which led him . . . to leave events to take their own course.
Apparition
The sudden apparition of the Spaniards.
Appointment
The cavaliers emulated their chief in the richness of their appointments.
Array
A gallant array of nobles and cavaliers.
Aspiration
Vague aspiration after military renown.
Assault
The Spanish general prepared to renew the assault.
Assent
The assent, if not the approbation, of the prince.
Assign
He assigned to his men their several posts.
Augury
He resigned himself . . . with a docility that gave little augury of his future greatness.
Aversion
Mutual aversion of races.
Baffle
Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations.
Barren
Brilliant but barren reveries.
Baton
He held the baton of command.
Beat
He beat them in a bloody battle.
Beaufet
A beaufet . . . filled with gold and silver vessels.
Beaver
A brown beaver slouched over his eyes.
Beneficent
The beneficent fruits of Christianity.
Birth
Elected without reference to birth, but solely for qualifications.
Blithe
The blithe sounds of festal music.
Bloom
The rich blooms of the tropics.
Body
A numerous body led unresistingly to the slaughter.
Border
The country is bordered by a broad tract called the “hot region.”
Born
No one could be born into slavery in Mexico.
Bow
The whole nation bowed their necks to the worst kind of tyranny.
Brand
The Inquisition branded its victims with infamy.
Break
The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity.
Butchery
The perpetration of human butchery.
Cabinet
Philip passed some hours every day in his father's cabinet.
Caliber
A battery composed of three guns of small caliber.
Cannonade
A furious cannonade was kept up from the whole circle of batteries on the devoted towm.
Carpeting
The floor was covered with rich carpeting.
Case
The man who, cased in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle.
Casque
His casque overshadowed with brilliant plumes.
Cavalcade
He brought back war-worn cavalcade to the city.
Ceremonial
The gorgeous ceremonial of the Burgundian court.
Choose
They had only to choose between implicit obedience and open rebellion.
Close
They boldly closed in a hand-to-hand contest.
Cognizance
Wearing the liveries and cognizance of their master.
Commission
A commission was at once appointed to examine into the matter.
Comparatively
With but comparatively few exceptions.
Completion
The completion of some repairs.
Conciliatory
The only alternative, therefore, was to have recourse to the conciliatory policy.
Conclusion
A fluorish of trumpets announced the conclusion of the contest.
Concourse
Amidst the concourse were to be seen the noble ladies of Milan, in gay, fantastic cars, shining in silk brocade.
Conduct
Little skilled in the art of conducting a siege.
Conquest
Three years sufficed for the conquest of the country.
Consanguinity
Invoking aid by the ties of consanguinity.
Conscientious
The advice of wise and conscientious men.
Considerable
A considerable sum of money.
Constancy
Constancy and contempt of danger.
Constellation
The constellations of genius had already begun to show itself . . . which was to shed a glory over the meridian and close of Philip's reign.
Convert
No attempt was made to convert the Moslems.
Conveyance
The long journey was to be performed on horseback, -- the only sure mode of conveyance.
Corsair
Barbary corsairs . . . infested the coast of the Mediterranean.
Cost
At less cost of life than is often expended in a skirmish, [Charles V.] saved Europe from invasion.
Costly
He had fitted up his palace in the most costly and sumptuous style, for the accomodation of the princess.
Court
They might almost seem to have courted the crown of martyrdom.
Courteous
A patient and courteous bearing.
Covert
The highwayman has darted from his covered by the wayside.
Crowd
The balconies and verandas were crowded with spectators, anxious to behold their future sovereign.
Crumble
The league deprived of its principal supports must soon crumble to pieces.
Crust
Below this icy crust of conformity, the waters of infidelity lay dark and deep as ever.
Cupidity
With the feelings of political distrust were mingled those of cupidity and envy, as the Spaniard saw the fairest provinces of the south still in the hands of the accursed race of Ishmael.
Debate
Volunteers . . . thronged to serve under his banner, and the cause of religion was debated with the same ardor in Spain as on the plains of Palestine.
Debouch
Battalions debouching on the plain.
Definitive
Some definitive . . . scheme of reconciliation.
Demonstration
Loyal demonstrations toward the prince.
Denaturalize
They also claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves, or, in other words, of publicly renouncing their allegiance to their sovereign, and of enlisting under the banners of his enemy.
Departure
Any departure from a national standard.
Dialect
[Charles V.] could address his subjects from every quarter in their native dialect.
Diligent
Diligent cultivation of elegant literature.
Disadvantageous
Even in the disadvantageous position in which he had been placed, he gave clear indications of future excellence.
Discovery
A brilliant career of discovery and conquest.
Disgust
To disgust him with the world and its vanities.
Display
Proudly displaying the insignia of their order.
Disproportion
A degree of strength altogether disproportioned to the extent of its territory.
Dispute
To dispute the possession of the ground with the Spaniards.
Distant
The success of these distant enterprises.
Divide
Every family became now divided within itself.
Downright
Gloomy fancies which in her amounted to downright insanity.
Drive
Under cover of the night and a driving tempest.
Dry
Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.
Ecclesiastic
From a humble ecclesiastic, he was subsequently preferred to the highest dignities of the church.
Elegant
A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature.
Embellishment
In the selection of their ground, as well as in the embellishment of it.
Emblazon
The walls were . . . emblazoned with legends in commemoration of the illustrious pair.
Endeavor
He had . . . endeavored earnestly to do his duty.
Enfeeble
Enfeebled by scanty subsistence and excessive toil.
Enroll
All the citizen capable of bearing arms enrolled themselves.
Entertainment
Theatrical entertainments conducted with greater elegance and refinement.
Enthusiasm
Philip was greeted with a tumultuous enthusiasm.
Epicurean
Courses of the most refined and epicurean dishes.
Etiquette
The pompous etiquette to the court of Louis the Fourteenth.
Exercise
The clumsy exercises of the European tourney.
Exhale
Their inspiration exhaled in elegies.
Expansive
His forehead was broad and expansive.
Expectation
His magnificent expectations made him, in the opinion of the world, the best match in Europe.
Expedition
The expedition miserably failed.
Expression
With this tone of philosophy were mingled expressions of sympathy.
It still wore the majesty of expression so conspicuous in his portraits by the inimitable pencil of Titian.
Extinguish
A light which the fierce winds have no power to extinguish.
Exultation
His bosom swelled with exultation.
Flatter
Others he flattered by asking their advice.
Forecast
His calm, deliberate forecast better fitted him for the council than the camp.
Forlorn
The condition of the besieged in the mean time was forlorn in the extreme.
Frame
No frames could be strong enough to endure it.
Horseback
The long journey was to be performed on horseback.
Huddle
Huddling together on the public square . . . like a herd of panic-struck deer.
Imputable
A prince whose political vices, at least, were imputable to mental incapacity.
Insinuating
His address was courteous, and even insinuating.
Note
There was scarce a family of note which had not poured out its blood on the field or the scaffold.
Nuptial
Preparations . . . for the approaching nuptials.
Panache
A panache of variegated plumes.
Pernicious
Pernicious to his health.
Perquisite
The pillage of a place taken by storm was regarded as the perquisite of the soldiers.
Pragmatic
A royal pragmatic was accordingly passed.
Predecessor
A prince who was as watchful as his predecessor had been over the interests of the state.
Project
He entered into the project with his customary ardor.
Promulge
Extraordinary doctrines these for the age in which they were promulged.
Quipu
The mysterious science of the quipus . . . supplied the Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of transmitting them to future generations.
Sack
The town was stormed, and delivered up to sack, -- by which phrase is to be understood the perpetration of all those outrages which the ruthless code of war allowed, in that age, on the persons and property of the defenseless inhabitants, without regard to sex or age.
Secular
He tried to enforce a stricter discipline and greater regard for morals, both in the religious orders and the secular clergy.
Sparkle
The shock was sufficiently strong to strike out some sparkles of his fiery temper.
Splinter
After splintering their lances, they wheeled about, and . . . abandoned the field to the enemy.
Subsidize
He employed the remittances from Spain to subsidize a large body of German mercenaries.
Thunder
The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.
Transmit
The scepter of that kingdom continued to be transmitted in the dynasty of Castile.
Wassail
The victors abandoned themselves to feasting and wassail.