"Informer" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of command. Donna Marina desired the old woman and her son to remain in her apartment till she went in search of her valuables; but went immediately to Cortes, to whom she communicated all the information she had received, adding that her informer was still in her apartment. Cortes immediately sent for the old woman, who being confronted by Donna Marina, repeated every thing exactly as before, which agreed in all respects with the information he had ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... that I must become an informer, the result of which would be to put another in my place. No, I can't do that; I've nothing to do at present and I might as ...
— Snow on the Headlight - A Story of the Great Burlington Strike • Cy Warman
... and blindly obeyed Miss Smellie, propitiated while loathing her; accepted her statements, standards, and beliefs; curried favour and became her spy and informer. ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren
... B. Peacock, Esq., solicitor to the post-office, detailed the methods which the department had used to suppress the illicit sending of letters. By law, one half of the penalty, in cases of prosecution, went to the informer, but of late, informations were given much less frequently, and he thought the diminution of informations was owing to the fact that, about five years before, there had been a call in parliament for a return of the names of informers. He said the ...
— Cheap Postage • Joshua Leavitt
... support of more than 30,000 armed men. This description of the projects and resources of the Royalists may be at once, and contemptuously set aside: it was founded upon lies supplied by such men as Manning, the spy, or Bamfield, the informer. Cromwell's words were contradicted by the abortive and petty nature of the insurrection, by the obvious refusal of all England to join in the enterprise, and by the conduct of the Protector himself. For he would ...
— The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 • Various
... and Haight and others of high standing in the Church had come to look over the spot and there another oath of secrecy was taken. Any informer was to be "sent over the rim of the basin"—except that one of their number was to make a full report to the President at Salt Lake City. Klingensmith was then chosen by vote to take charge of the goods for the benefit of the Church. Klingensmith, Haight, and Higbee, he recalled, had later driven ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson
... privilege of a courier unless he has a proper warrant, and that then he shall only claim a free lodging; that clerks in the villages shall keep a register of all that is taken on account of the public service; and that if anybody make an unjust claim he shall pay four times the amount to the informer and six times the amount to the emperor. But royal decrees could do little or nothing where there were no judges to enforce them; and the people of Upper Egypt must have felt this law as a cruel insult when they were told ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12) • S. Rappoport
... on a neighbouring hill; having there dismounted, and taken off their fur mantles, they advanced naked to the charge. The only weapon of an Indian is a very long bamboo or chuzo, ornamented with ostrich feathers, and pointed by a sharp spear-head. My informer seemed to remember with the greatest horror the quivering of these chuzos as they approached near. When close, the cacique Pincheira hailed the besieged to give up their arms, or he would cut all their throats. ...
— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin
... some danger," laughed Barrington, "but at least I am not a spy or an informer. The thought of a woman in such a ...
— The Light That Lures • Percy Brebner
... been considered in the first place, as a system of espionage, by which one member is made a spy upon, or becomes an informer against another. But against this charge it would be observed by the Quakers, that vigilance over morals is unquestionably a Christian duty. It would be observed again that the vigilance which is exercised in ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume I (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson
... of our early experiences are still as fresh in your mind as they are in mine! Do you remember that day you made me stand guard while you 'blew' old Jones's eggs in retaliation for his having turned informer against you? I think it was the time he told about your having promoted a fight between two dogs. And do you remember the day on the skating-pond when you broke through the ice and frightened me into fits by disappearing three times below ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various
... comes from such action. And yet," he continued, placing his hand in the breast-pocket of his coat, and drawing out a blue official paper, "this may convince you of your folly; at least, it may convince you of the fact that there is a traitor and informer in your midst. Who he is ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan
... that should be told," their informer whispered low to one of them. "For love of the Queen, hush ...
— The Royal Pawn of Venice - A Romance of Cyprus • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull
... the left, lest he should endeavour to escape me. There was no fear of this, for Mr. Jonson was both a bold and a crafty man, and it required, perhaps, but little of his penetration to discover that I was no officer nor informer, and that my communication had been of a nature likely enough to terminate in his advantage; there was, therefore, but little need of his courage in accompanying ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... prolific and brilliant contributor to the German Socialist review, Die Neue Zeit. He was early "exiled" from Russia, but it was suspected by a great many Socialists that in reality his "exile" was simply a device to cover employment in the Russian Secret Service as a spy and informer, for which the prestige he had gained in Socialist circles was a valuable aid. When the Revolution of 1905 broke out Helfandt returned to Russia under the terms of the amnesty declared at that time. He at once joined the Leninist section ...
— Bolshevism - The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy • John Spargo
... it had been predetermined that Brousson should die. He was charged with preaching in France contrary to the King's prohibition. This he admitted; but when asked to whom he had administered the Sacrament, he positively refused to disclose, because he was neither a traitor nor informer to accuse his brethren. He was also charged with having conspired to introduce a foreign army into France under the command of Marshal Schomberg. This he declared to be absolutely false, for he had throughout his career been a man of ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles
... I said to myself, "that he holds up to me. But I will never become an informer. I will never injure my patron; and therefore he ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IV. • Editors: Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
... answered, briefly. "I go down to Savannah, secure Louise from this blunder—for there is really nothing to be proven against her as a spy—and then, farewell, or ill, to Carolina. I do not expect to enter it again. My arrangements are all made. Nothing has been forgotten. As to my good Louise, your informer has not been made acquainted with all the facts. It is true she was a Georgian slave, but is so no longer. For over a year she has been in possession of the papers establishing her freedom. Her own money, and a clever lawyer, arranged all that without any trouble whatever. What Monsieur ...
— The Bondwoman • Marah Ellis Ryan
... levity for the solemnity of enchantment, and may both be shewn, by one quotation from Camden's account of Ireland, to be founded upon a practice really observed by the uncivilised natives of that country: "When any one gets a fall, says the informer of Camden, he starts up, and, turning three times to the right, digs a hole in the earth; for they imagine that there is a spirit in the ground, and if he falls sick in two or three days, they ...
— Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies • Samuel Johnson
... offense his right ear was cut off and he received the bastinado. For a third offense he was put to death. An act passed under Edward VI. (1555) provided that the able-bodied laborer refusing work should be branded on the breast with the letter V and adjudged to the informer as his slave for two years. The master might fasten a ring about the neck, arm, ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern
... queen of Pluto, but she chang'd "The vile informer to an hideous shape: "Sprinkled with streams of Phlegethon, his head "Feather'd appears, with beak, and monstrous eyes; "Spoil'd of his shape, with yellow feathers cloth'd: "Large grows his head; bent are his lengthen'd nails; "Scarcely he moves the pinions which ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... capitalists their tops, marbles, young rabbits, and kites; and "as sure as death" every Monday the silent but observant treasurer received for eight weeks 5L 4s., at the rate of sixpence a head, from 208 boys. They kept their secret like an oyster, and there was not one informer among the 208; but curiosity grew hot, and there were many speculations, and it was widely believed that the money would be used in sending a cane of the most magnificent proportions to Bulldog, as a remembrance of his teaching days, and a mark of respect from his ...
— Young Barbarians • Ian Maclaren
... laid hands upon him, and secured him. It was so quickly done, that he had not lost sight of the informer's face for an instant when his ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... he was closeted there with his keeper, a sort of country spy, a paid informer who apprised him as to all that was said and done ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... pointing his finger at me, and so carried away by passion, so lifted out of himself by wrath and indignation, that I shrank before him—'you talk, lady, of contempt and abhorrence in the same breath with me, but what have you for him—what have you for him—the spy, the informer, the hired traitor? And if you doubt me, if you want evidence, look at him. Only look at ...
— Under the Red Robe • Stanley Weyman
... afternoon that the informer had made his appearance at Matstead, thirsty and dishevelled, with the news that a man thought to be a Popish priest was in hiding on the moors; that he was being kept under observation by another informer; ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson
... into this mortal life. An unusually able, accomplished person, accustomed to deal with common-sense facts, a celebrated political economist, and notorious for business-like habits, assured this writer that a certain mesmerist, who was my informer's intimate friend, had raised a dead girl to life.' Can we wonder that miracles are still believed in? Ah! no. The need, the dire need, of them remains, and will remain ...
— Tracks of a Rolling Stone • Henry J. Coke
... plenumo | plehnoo'mo executor | administranto | ahdministrahn'to fee (of office) | honorario | honoh-rahree'oh fine (penalty) | monpuno | mohn-poo'no information, to | denunci | dehnoont'see give | | informer | denunc-anto, -into[6] | dehnoonts-ahn'toh, | | -in'toh injunction | injunkcio | inyoonk-tsee'oh inventory | inventario | invehn-tahree'oh jail | malliberejo | mahllibehr-ehyo judge, the | jugxisto | yoojist'oh jurisdiction | jugxorajto | yoo'jo-rah'y-toh ...
— Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation • William W. Mann
... thy mule of patience; I am a Roman. What are my crimes? proclaim them. Am I too rich, too honest for the times? Have I or treasure, jewels, land, or houses That some informer gapes for? is my strength Too much to be admitted, or my knowledge? ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson
... carried on, if with his knowledge, is equally liable to the fine with the gamesters. A proattin knowing of gaming in his dusun and concealing it incurs a fine of twenty dollars. One half of the fines goes to the informer, the other to the Company, to be distributed among the industrious planters at the yearly payment of ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden
... unknown. This peaceable disposition of the man was not satisfactory. Said they, "dead men tell no tales," and at an informal meeting, a vote was taken and all, with a single exception, present were in favor of death. That exception required more satisfactory evidence that Hull was the informer, and thus the murder of the man was prevented. The writer has not a particle of doubt, having been present at this meeting and heard the proposition and the vote taken, that the murder would have been perpetrated within twenty-four hours had not a single person been ...
— The Great North-Western Conspiracy In All Its Startling Details • I. Windslow Ayer
... have marked my objections the play is licensed, subject to the omission of the passages objected to; beyond this I have nothing to do, or an examiner would become a spy as well as a censor on the theatre." Any breach of the law was therefore left to be remedied by the action of the "common informer" of the period. ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook
... were deliberating upon the most certain and speedy method of destroying the tyrant, an unexpected incident gave new strength to the conspiracy. 15. Pempe'dius, a senator of distinction, being accused before the emperor of having spoken of him with disrespect, the informer cited one Quintil'ia, an actress, to confirm the accusation. 16. Quintil'ia, however, was possessed of a degree of fortitude not frequently found even in the other sex. She denied the fact with obstinacy; and, being put to the torture, bore the severest ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith
... packages, wagons, sleds, and places of deposit" of such person to be searched, and if ardent spirits be found it shall be forfeit, together with the boats and all other substances with it connected, one half to the informer and the other half to the use of the United States. The courts and all legal machines necessary for trial and punishment of offenders are oiled and ready; two years is a long while in jail; three hundred dollars and ...
— The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories • Owen Wister
... over any of your laws. However, a government, be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of a discretionary power, discriminate times and persons, and will not ordinarily pursue any man, when its own safety is not concerned. A mercenary informer knows no distinction. Under such a system, the obnoxious people are slaves not only to the government, but they live at the mercy of every individual; they are at once the slaves of the whole community and of every part of it; and the worst and most unmerciful men are those on whose ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... to secure the greatest number of arrests by a direct appeal to the most ignoble, but not the least powerful principle of human nature, it was ordained "that the informer, in case of conviction, should be entitled to one half the property of the accused, if not more than one hundred pounds Flemish; if more, then ten per cent. of all ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... justifiable in saying, they appeared contradictions, because he had some ideas of sound which did not at all aid him in forming those of colour; he would not, perhaps, be very inconclusive if he suspected the competency of his informer to the definition attempted, from his inability to convey to him in any distinct, understood terms, his own ideas of colours. The theologian is a blind man, who would explain to others who are also blind, the shades ...
— The System of Nature, Vol. 2 • Baron D'Holbach
... had "stood up for prayers" went through Bruceton and the surrounding country like wildfire. Scarcely anyone believed it, no matter by whom he was told: the informer might be a person of undoubted character, but the information was simply incredible. People would not believe such a thing unless they could see it with their own eyes and hear it with their own ears: so the special meetings became at once ...
— All He Knew - A Story • John Habberton
... ever found out who the informer was I would serve him worse than that," said Bristow in savage tones. "I shall keep my promise, too, if I ever get the chance, for I am one who ...
— George at the Fort - Life Among the Soldiers • Harry Castlemon
... hear and to say.' They said: 'Oh, our Lord, it is to our commanded eyes as though slaves stood in a Fork.' The Hajji said: 'So testify before the officer who waits you in the town of Dupe.' They said: 'What shall come to us after?' The Hajji said: 'The just reward for the informer. But if ye do not testify, then a punishment which shall cause birds, to fall from the trees in terror and monkeys to scream for pity.' Hearing this, the Angari men hastened to Dupe. The Hajji then said to me: 'Are ...
— Actions and Reactions • Rudyard Kipling
... came a low informer to the Grabben Gullen side, And he said to Smith the squatter, "You must saddle up and ride, For your bullock's in the harness-cask of Morgan Donahoo— He's the greatest ...
— Saltbush Bill, J.P., and Other Verses • A. B. Paterson
... "I cannot identify him, though I have questioned those who should know and who are safe. I should know his name, but I cannot recall it or place him. But I know his occupation. He is a professional informer in the employ of the palace secret ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White
... had the one half of that authority without any danger, and with a good character, should hunt after the whole with infamy and danger, and this when it was doubtful whether he could obtain it or not; and when he saw the sad example of his brethren before him, and was both the informer and the accuser against them, at a time when they might not otherwise have been discovered; nay, was the author of the punishment inflicted upon them, when it appeared evidently that they were guilty of a wicked attempt against ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus
... of the nature of Barere's new calling. It is a calling unknown in our country. It has indeed often happened in England that a plot has been revealed to the government by one of the conspirators. The informer has sometimes been directed to carry it fair towards his accomplices, and to let the evil design come to full maturity. As soon as his work is done, he is generally snatched from the public gaze, and sent to some obscure village or to some remote colony. The use ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 2 (of 4) - Contributions To The Edinburgh Review • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... he soon got into fresh trouble, being named amongst the accomplices of Catiline, both before Novius Niger the quaestor, by Lucius Vettius the informer, and in the senate by Quintus Curius; to whom a reward had been voted, for having first discovered the designs of the conspirators. Curius affirmed that he had received his information from Catiline. Vettius even engaged to produce in ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus
... himself without uttering a word, and followed the slave to the door of Vaninka's room. Having arrived there, with a motion of his hand he dismissed the informer, who, instead of retiring in obedience to this mute command, hid himself in the corner of ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - VANINKA • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... felt, especially when I saw the diabolical-looking little villain soon after appear on deck. I promised the informer that I would not forget him, and would be on my guard, though I did not give him any credit for disinterested motives in mentioning what had occurred. I had no difficulty by daylight in recognising my friend the captain, nor shall I again forget his ugly mug in a hurry. He also ...
— Tales of the Sea - And of our Jack Tars • W.H.G. Kingston
... Some secrecy, however, attached to the profession of a religion so often proscribed. Who should presume to tear away the mask which prudence or timidity had taken up? A delator, or professional informer, was an infamous character. To deal with the noble and illustrious, the descendants of the Marcelli and the Gracchi, there must be nothing less than a great state officer, supported by the censor and the senate, having an unlimited privilege of scrutiny and censure, authorized to inflict ...
— The Caesars • Thomas de Quincey
... lent so sympathetic an ear to the tale of his life in Poland, his journey hither; so sympathetic an eye to his commentary on the great Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. The vile spy, the base informer! He had told the zealots of the town of the new-comer's heretical mode of thinking. They had shut him out, as one ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... In the dock stood Lord Blandamer dressed in full peer's robes, and with a coronet on his head. The eyes of all were turned upon him, Westray, with fierce enmity and contempt, and it was he, Westray, that a stern-faced judge was sentencing, as a traducer and lying informer. Then the people in the galleries stamped with their feet and howled against him in their rage; and waking with a start, he knew that it was the postman's sharp knock on the street-door, that had broken ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner
... commercial friend in Amsterdam. It stated that he (Eskeles Flies) had just received a communication of such vital importance that it was worth much more to him than the thousand ducats he had paid to his informer. The emperor, tired of his contention with Holland regarding the navigation of the Scheldt, had agreed to accept the ten millions offered by Holland in return for his guaranty that she should still ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... and wine to your statue, which I had ordered to be brought into the court for the purpose, together with the images of the gods, and in addition to this they cursed Christ, none of which things, it is said, those who are really Christians can be made to do. Others who were named by an informer said that they were Christians, and soon afterward denied it, saying, indeed, that they had been, but had ceased to be Christians, some three years ago, some many years, and one even twenty years ago. All these ...
— A Source Book for Ancient Church History • Joseph Cullen Ayer, Jr., Ph.D.
... by a low tavern-keeper, her master, and three negroes, to burn the city and murder the whites. This story was confirmed and amplified by an Irish prostitute convicted of a robbery, who, to recommend herself to mercy, reluctantly turned informer. Numerous arrests had been already made among the slaves and free blacks. Many others followed. The eight lawyers who then composed the bar of New York all assisted by turns in behalf of the prosecution. The prisoners, who had no counsel, were tried and convicted upon most insufficient evidence. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 47, September, 1861 • Various
... because he had become liable in some way by judgment, statute or other authority of law, to pay a fine or fixed penalty to the plaintiff. Here the person recovering might be as considerable as the lord of a manor, or as mean as a "common informer"; the principle was the same. In every case outside this last class, that is to say, whenever there was a debt in the popular sense of the word, it had to be shown that the defendant had actually received the money or goods; this value received came to ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 2 - "Constantine Pavlovich" to "Convention" • Various
... meaning of the words of Jesus was diametrically opposed to the accusation, and that there was nothing in them to warrant his condemnation, Pilate employed his final resource for prejudicing the trial, viz., the deposition of a purchased traitorous informer. This miserable wretch—who was, no doubt, Judas—accused Jesus formally, of having ...
— The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ - The Original Text of Nicolas Notovitch's 1887 Discovery • Nicolas Notovitch
... not know. Wherefore, as we rode he asked me if I knew such and such men (whom he named) and where they lived; and when he understood that I knew them, he desired me to show him their houses. "No," said I, "I scorn to be an informer against my neighbours, to bring them into trouble." He thereupon, riding to and fro, found by inquiry most of their houses; but, as it happened, found none of them at home, at ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood
... my Marcus? I know Aulus Plautius, who, though he blames my mode of life, has for me a certain weakness, and even respects me, perhaps, more than others, for he knows that I have never been an informer like Domitius Afer, Tigellinus, and a whole rabble of Ahenobarbus's intimates [Nero's name was originally L. Domitius Ahenobarbus]. Without pretending to be a stoic, I have been offended more than once at acts of Nero, which Seneca and Burrus ...
— Quo Vadis - A Narrative of the Time of Nero • Henryk Sienkiewicz
... Double and treble fool! and dost thou call this nothing? Nothing to tell the loitering informer the very head and heart of our design? By Erebus! but I am sick—sick of the fools, with whom I am thus wretchedly assorted! Well! well! upon your own heads be it!" and instantly recovering his temper he walked on with his two confederates, now in deep silence, at a quick pace ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert
... our children than it heals us. You wither and die in the search of so obscure a proof. How miserably have they of my time arrived at that knowledge who have been so unhappy as to have found it out? If the informer does not at the same time apply a remedy and bring relief, 'tis an injurious information, and that better deserves a stab than the lie. We no less laugh at him who takes pains to prevent it, than at him who is a cuckold and knows it not. The character of cuckold is indelible: who once has it ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... the law is,' said Larry, 'that, if an unlawful still, that is, a still without license for whisky, is found, half the benefit of the fine that's put upon the parish goes to him that made the discovery; that's what that man is after, for he's an informer.' ...
— The Absentee • Maria Edgeworth
... accountable directly to them for his acts. It is undoubtedly liable to abuse, and at some periods of our history perhaps has been abused. If it be thought desirable and constitutional that it should be so limited as to make the President merely a common informer against other public agents, he should at least be permitted to act in that capacity before some open tribunal, independent of party politics, ready to investigate the merits of every case, furnished with the means of taking evidence, ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... carried away to Prison, and there died of a disease; but, as some say, of poison administered by the enemies of Pericles, to raise a slander, or a suspicion at least, as though he had procured it. The informer Menon, upon Glycon's proposal, the people made free from payment of taxes and customs, and ordered the generals to take care that nobody should do him any hurt. And Pericles, finding that in Phidias's case he had miscarried with the people, being afraid of impeachment, kindled the war, which hitherto ...
— The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch - Being Parts of The "Lives" of Plutarch • Plutarch
... written (Lev. 19:16): "Thou shalt not be an informer [Douay: 'a detractor'] nor a tale-bearer [Douay: 'whisperer'] among the people." But an informer is apparently the same as a backbiter. Therefore neither does tale-bearing differ ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas
... their government, to extract money from them, often hanging men up by the heels to make them confess that they are rich, or to ransom themselves from faults merely imputed with a view to fleece them. Thus my complaints against exaction and injustice made me hated of all about the court, as an informer. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr
... lettre, et me laisse a peine celui de repondre en peu de mots a la seconde. Pour m'en tenir a ce qui presse pour le moment, savoir la recommendation que vous desirez en Corse; puisque vous avez le desir de visiter ces braves insulaires, vous pourrez vous informer a Bastia, de M. Buttafoco capitaine au Regiment Royal Italien; il a sa maison a Vescovado, ou il se tient assez souvent. C'est un tres galant homme, qui a des connoissances et de l'esprit; il suffira de lui montrer cette lettre, et je suis sur qu'il vous ...
— Boswell's Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica • James Boswell
... he saw the gleam of the knife; and then he drew in his breath with a hiss, for it was almost momentary: one of the two French soldiers who had approached him to obey his officer's orders and disarm the informer just raised his musket and made a drive with the butt at the knife-armed Spaniard, who received the metal plate of the stock full in his temple and rolled over, half-stunned, amongst ...
— !Tention - A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War • George Manville Fenn
... smothered. There can be no more consolidation, no more copper boom in your lifetime and mine, and when the collapse comes every one will look for the victim, and that victim will be you. Even your best friend will say if you were going to turn informer you should have been smart enough to have discovered your mare's nest before you let it grow so big. Look at it, Lawson, look at it, and in the name of everything that is reasonable get ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson
... cockatrice Juno lock'd up. 'Heart, an all the poetry in Parnassus get me to be a player again, I'll sell 'em my share for a sesterce. But this is Humours, Horace, that goat-footed envious slave; he's turn'd fawn now; an informer, the rogue! 'tis he has betray'd us all. Did you not see him with ...
— The Poetaster - Or, His Arraignment • Ben Jonson
... Northumberland to deliver him his cheine... whereupon, in my Lord's garden, he declared a conspiracy," evolved out of his inner consciousness, of which Somerset was the supposed inventor and real victim. On the 16th, conspirators and informer were impartially arrested, Palmer "on the terrace walking there." To Somerset, Palmer had denied every word he had uttered, when the Duke sent for him and charged him with the uttering: on the ...
— Robin Tremain - A Story of the Marian Persecution • Emily Sarah Holt
... sneaking too," thought Ulyth, with a glance at Stephanie's face. "I fancy I know who turned informer." Then aloud she said: "I'm fearfully sorry. I'll buy a new copy of ...
— For the Sake of the School • Angela Brazil
... of what roads to follow to reach Mendham, or Baskingridge, Mrs. Fabian thanked her informer most graciously. ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... fool: In being out of office, I am out of danger; Where, if I were a justice, besides the trouble, I might, or out of wilfulness, or error, Run myself finely into a praemunire: And so become a prey to the informer. No, I'll have none of't: 'tis enough I keep Greedy at my devotion: so he serve My purposes, let him hang, or damn, I care not; Friendship is but ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various
... a check was being put upon their operations, the welshing fraternity assumed a virtuous attitude and actually put into operation an old statute passed in the reign of Queen Anne, which enabled any private informer to sue and recover treble the amount of a bet made over and above L10. Six writs were served upon Lord George and six upon his partner, Mr. Bowes, in the year 1843, but the plantiff failed to prove the making ...
— The Portland Peerage Romance • Charles J. Archard
... door, and went in with him to see the sport. Robin, for some reason, could not bid him go away, and both Betty and Janet were sure he was in the plot against them; indeed, it was always thought he was an informer, and no doubt he was something not canny, for he ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt
... imprisoned night —a chill, uncanny journey and a long one, and not made the shorter or the cheerier by the sorceress's talk, which was about this sufferer and his crime. He had been accused by an anonymous informer, of having killed a stag in the royal ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... Athens, consider[n] what these men themselves, the actual criminals, ought to suffer for their offences, if I, who am absolutely guiltless, was afraid of being ruined owing to them. {222} But what is my motive for accusing you? I am an informer, of course, and want to get money out of you![n] And which was the easier course for me—to get money out of Philip, who offered a large sum—to get as much as any of these men, and to have not only Philip for my friend, but also my opponents (for they would assuredly ...
— The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 1 • Demosthenes
... sure what view the authorities in Dublin Castle might take of recruiting for the Boer service, and Miss Goold's hints about informers recurred to his mind alarmingly. Perhaps this Doherty was an informer. ...
— Hyacinth - 1906 • George A. Birmingham
... after, and being asked the same question, answered, "Friend, there is one within a stone's throw; I believe you may see it before you." Adams, lifting up his eyes, cried, "I protest, and so there is;" and, thanking his informer, proceeded directly to it. ...
— Joseph Andrews Vol. 1 • Henry Fielding
... Bonapartes boiled at this underhand dealing, and he at once despatched Colonel Desprez to Napoleon to demand Soult's instant recall. The Emperor, who was then at Moscow, temporized. Perhaps he was not sorry to have in Spain so vigilant an informer; and he made the guarded reply that Soult's suspicions did not much surprise him, that they were shared by many other French generals, who thought King Joseph preferred Spain to France, and that he could not recall Soult, as he had "the only ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose
... fear we must abandon this place—this and all others of a similar description. I knew that as soon as internal commotions ceased, old Noll would root us out. He will set Burrell on the trail, if he can get no other informer; for he has never been too great not to make use of filthy tools to effect his purpose. He had been here long ago but that he dislikes to employ such troops as he has trained in hunting up moles ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall
... tell them their vices. It re- quires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his 571:9 faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the 571:12 foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the danger and yet ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy
... nor any other place, was secure from the inquisitorial interference of the high church functionaries. The spy and the informer were abroad. No place of meeting could long remain a secret—whether manorial halls, shopkeepers' storerooms, barns, hay-lofts, or the broad shadows of copse and forest. Go where they would, the conscientious worshippers were sooner or later detected, and dragged as culprits ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various
... undertake the work of a go-between or informer, or spy; they should never show selfishness or partiality towards ...
— The Siksha-Patri of the Swami-Narayana Sect • Professor Monier Williams (Trans.)
... (affirmation) 535. mention; acquainting &c. v; instruction &c. (teaching) 537; outpouring; intercommunication, communicativeness. informant, authority, teller, intelligencer[obs3], reporter, exponent, mouthpiece; informer, eavesdropper, delator, detective; sleuth; mouchard[obs3], spy, newsmonger; messenger &c. 534; amicus curiae[Lat]. valet de place, cicerone, pilot, guide; guidebook, handbook; vade mecum[Latin]; manual; map, plan, chart, gazetteer; itinerary &c. (journey) 266. hint, suggestion, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... royalists detained in the Temple were not taken in by it. M. de Revoire, an old habitue of the prison, who spent the whole of the Imperial period in captivity told the Combray family after the Restoration, that all the prisoners considered Acquet "as a spy, an informer, the whole time he was in the Temple." After a week's imprisonment and three weeks' surveillance in Paris, he was set at liberty and returned ...
— The House of the Combrays • G. le Notre
... said the Preceptress, gravely. "And you have yourself experienced some ill-usage from the person who has played spy and informer in this matter, since you have come to Briarwood Hall. I understand—you know that little can go on about the school that does not reach my ears in one way or another—that this same person has called you a 'tattle-tale' ...
— Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall - or Solving the Campus Mystery • Alice B. Emerson
... consists of corn-fields studded with groves, or rather tufts of trees, and divided by green fences, in which were pear and apple-trees in full bearing. The fields near the town had paths around them and across them, where the towns-folk, as I understood from my informer, were accustomed to walk in the evening and which, the corn being ripe and high, were pleasantly recluse. Felice and myself crossed three or four of them, and if I may judge from the little scrupulosity with which she ran amongst the corn, the proprietors ...
— Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 • Lt-Col. Pinkney
... was implicated in the blowing up of the World-Republican Building in Washington, and the wrecking of Senator Marlowe's special train after his speech against socialist interests, but the coward turned informer against his friends and associates in the secret society of which he had been a leader, and saved himself by sending them to prison. From that day until his death he lived the life of a hunted animal flying from the hounds of vengeance. Brigit stood by him in spite of threats against her life as ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson
... Listhnay; and if they cut off his head, they will cut off mine too. No, they will only hang me—I am not noble. Hanged!—it is impossible; they would never go to such extremities in my case: besides, I will declare all. But then I shall be an informer: never! But then ...
— The Conspirators - The Chevalier d'Harmental • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)
... you know, and I told him what you had done—what I had helped you do. Also, I sent him about his business; which is to win his railroad fight if he can. Mr. Jastrow overheard the conversation, purposely, and as he threatens to turn informer, I am saving him the trouble. Perhaps I ought to add that he offered to hold his peace if I would ...
— A Fool For Love • Francis Lynde
... Latimer was a spy, he may, upon such suspicion, have caused him to be carried off and confined somewhere? Such things are done at elections, and on occasions less pressing than when men think their lives are in danger from an informer.' ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott
... tormentors. It is in this respect that he resembles a harmless fellow, dragged into the coils of an Anarchist "Inner Brotherhood." He is exposed to all sorts of wrongs from his neighbours, and he can only escape by turning "informer," by breaking the most sacred law of his society, losing all social status, and, probably, obliging his parents to remove him from school. Life at school, as among the Celtic peoples, turns on the belief that law and ...
— Adventures among Books • Andrew Lang
... the furniture, except for the iron cuspidors. Here the young fellows came for their sport, feeling safe from intrusion, for the possession of whiskey was against the law. There was a fine of five hundred dollars—one half to the informer—for the misdemeanor of having whiskey in one's possession, but the Kidders had no fear. They ...
— Philo Gubb Correspondence-School Detective • Ellis Parker Butler
... at the entrance to a bridge asserts that "any person driving over this bridge in a faster pace than a walk shall, if a white person be fined five dollars, and if a negro receive twenty-five lashes, half the penalty to be bestowed on the informer." ...
— English as She is Wrote - Showing Curious Ways in which the English Language may be - made to Convey Ideas or obscure them. • Anonymous
... purpose of preserving Romans from defamation, made libel subject to the penalties of treason. Thenceforward every man's life hung by a thread easily severed by some lying informer. ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller
... under the honest but sharp look of the hunter; the informer gets half, II believeyes, I guess its half. But theres blood on your sleeve, manyou havent ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper
... to whom the worthy Bridau appealed made the same atrocious reply: "Why do you meddle?" Bridau then sagely advised Madame Descoings to keep quiet and await events. But instead of conciliating Robespierre's housekeeper, she fretted and fumed against that informer, and even complained to a member of the Convention, who, trembling for himself, replied hastily, "I will speak of it to Robespierre." The handsome petitioner put faith in this promise, which the ...
— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac
... a sense of relief as he told it that he felt almost glad. "An' I know he would forgive you for murderin' him, Pat, this very minute, if he could spake." Pat did not answer. "An' if ye don't go they'll make me give evidence, an' ye wouldn't have me an informer, would ye?" ...
— The Weans at Rowallan • Kathleen Fitzpatrick
... find where the rajah had hidden; but beyond that distance they were met with stern looks of distrust, and it was evident to the officers in charge that the rajah was perfectly safe, his influence being too great amongst the people for any one to act as informer. ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn
... [Footnote 41: "The informer was one Edmund Robinson (yet living at the writing hereof, and commonly known by the name of Ned of Roughs) whose Father was by trade a Waller, and but a poor Man, and they finding that they were believed and had incouragement ...
— Discovery of Witches - The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster • Thomas Potts
... during the discharge of his duty in inflicting public punishment. After the punishment of the guilty, that the example might be a striking one in both aspects for the prevention of crime, a sum of money was granted out of the treasury as a reward to the informer: liberty also and the rights of citizenship were conferred upon him. He is said to have been the first person made free by the vindicta; some think that even the term vindicta is derived from him, and that his name was Vindicius. [4] After him ...
— Roman History, Books I-III • Titus Livius
... There was a strong detachment as escort, and in addition to the men's rifles, a couple of machine guns were taken along, as the lieutenant was taking no chances. He had learned enough from the perusal of the papers and the testimony of the informer to believe that serious trouble was brewing, and he was anxious above all that the prisoners should ...
— Army Boys on German Soil • Homer Randall
... honor—must," agreed Fyles. "Informer? I'd sooner shake hands with a murderer. And yet we have to deal and bargain ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum
... "I know something about you," he said gently. "And now that I've seen you — heard you speak — met your eyes — I know enough about you to form an opinion. ... So I don't ask you to turn informer. But the law won't stand for what Clinch is doing — whatever provocation he has had. And he must not aid or abet any ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert Chambers
... laws, and before they were repealed it is related by Dr. Doran (in 1855) that one individual not only got out of paying for a suit of clothes because of the illegality of the tailor in using covered buttons, but actually sued the unfortunate "snip" for the informer's share of the penalties, the funniest part of the tale being that the judge who decided the case, the barrister who pleaded the statute, and the client who gained the clothes he ought to have paid for, were all of them ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
... once more resumed his restless walk up and down the room. He was biting his fists, trying to restrain himself from striking the noble informer as brutally as he did his slaves, for he loathed the bearer of evil tidings almost as much as the secret traitors. He suffered from an overwhelming fury of hatred and from an ...
— "Unto Caesar" • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... respectable and benevolent looking man addressed me, "I am a Protestant, sir, and an Orangeman; but put these ladies under my protection, and you will not repent your confidence; for, next to the Pope, I love to defeat an informer;" and he pointed with a smile to our arrester, who was just measuring ...
— Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 • Various
... Jumla Khan listened to this narrative. But he made no comment; he merely issued instructions for the informer to be fed and for the present ...
— Tales of Destiny • Edmund Mitchell
... Suppose he turned informer? Could he set a price, and that price Lily? But he discarded that. He was not selling now, he was earning. He would set himself right first, and—provided the government got the leaders before those leaders got him, as they would surely try to do—he ...
— A Poor Wise Man • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent? No; let me be obsequious in thy heart, And take thou my oblation, poor but free, Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art, But mutual render, only me for thee. Hence, thou suborned informer! a true soul When most impeach'd, ...
— Shakespeare's Sonnets • William Shakespeare
... made use of by the light-fingered tribe, to signify an informer, by whom they have been impeached or betrayed—So a person who turns king's evidence against his accomplices is called ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... April the mayor informed the citizens assembled in Common Council that he had received information from one John Everard of certain matters which the informer pretended to have overheard at Windsor greatly affecting the city. He had examined Everard on oath, and the result of the examination being then openly read, it was resolved to lay the same before parliament.(851) Accordingly, on the 27th, Everard's information, which was ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe
... manager ushered the informer into a small room where a stout man with peculiarly keen grey eyes was warming himself at ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne
... traditions of her people. But the idea returned, once and again. It seemed to her that the evil of the man justified her in any measure for his punishment. She had been bred to hate and despise a spy, but it was borne in on her now that duty required of her to turn informer against Dan Hodges. There was more even than the inflicting of punishment on the outlaw; there was the necessity of safeguarding the innocent from the menace of those hidden man-traps. Any "furriner" from down below might wander here, whipping the stream; or any one of the neighborhood might ...
— Heart of the Blue Ridge • Waldron Baily
... of remorse for the action, or of enmity to those who had committed it, he entertained a wish to bring them to justice. But through the whole Highlands there is no character more detestable than that of an informer, or one who takes what is called Tascal-money, or reward for discovery of crimes. To have informed against Terig and MacDonald might have cost MacPherson his life; and it is far from being impossible that he had recourse to the story of the ghost, knowing well that his superstitious countrymen ...
— Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft • Sir Walter Scott
... which must not be diminished, and may be increased fivefold, but not more. He who exceeds the limit must give up the excess to the state; but if he does not, and is informed against, the surplus shall be divided between the informer and the Gods, and he shall pay a sum equal to the surplus out Of his own property. All property other than the lot must be inscribed in a register, so that any disputes which arise ...
— Laws • Plato
... untie the package, nor did he cross-examine the traitor. His head was throbbing again almost unbearably, and he was beginning to fear that he might not last to carry out the plan of safe-conduct for the informer. Slipping the precious package into an inner pocket of the enveloping coat, he took a compact roll of bank-bills from a drawer in the desk and gave it to Gryson, saying tersely: "That isn't a bribe, you understand; it's merely to help you make your getaway. Can you manage to ride on Transcontinental ...
— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde
... owners thereof are hereby summoned to cultivate the same with tobacco in preference to anything else. At the expiration of a certain space of time the land in question is to be handed over to the informer. Be it known, however, that, notwithstanding these enactments, the possessory title is not lost to the owner, but he is compelled to relinquish all rights and usufruct for ...
— The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes • Fedor Jagor; Tomas de Comyn; Chas. Wilkes; Rudolf Virchow.
... subject and is now rarely applied in England even by lawyers to criminal proceedings. What are now known as "penal actions,'' i.e. proceedings in which an individual who has not suffered personally by a breach of the law sues as a common informer for the statutory penalty either on his own benefit or on behalf also of the Crown (qui tam pro rege quam pro se ipso), bear some analogy to the actio popularis of Roman law, from which they are derived (see the statute 4 Hen. VII. 1488); but they are now treated for ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... like you better when you tell them their virtues, than when you tell them their vices. It requires the spirit of our great Master to tell a man his faults, and so risk human displeasure, for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind of their foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as unfaithful stewards, who have seen the danger and yet ...
— Pulpit and Press (6th Edition) • Mary Baker Eddy
... Earle. "John Earle received his first being in this vain and transitory world within the city of York.... His elegy on Beaumont was printed at the end of the quarto edition of Beaumont's poems—put out with a poetical epistle before them, subscribed by a Presbyterian bookbinder—afterwards an informer to the Court of Sequestration ... and a beggar defunct in prison"! In the notice of Morley he tells us that "his banishment was made less tedious to him by the company of Dr. Joh. Earle, his dearest friend." It is sad to find ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle
... watch, who rescued Blackstock, Greystock, and Thinstock, and with Dogberryan stupidity carried them off to a neighbouring lock-up. The examination which took place was just the occasion for Sheridan's fun to display itself on, and pretending to turn informer, he succeeded in bewildering the unfortunate parochial constable, who conducted it, till the arrival of the magistrate, whose duty was to deliver his friends from durance vile. The whole scene is well described ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 2 • Grace & Philip Wharton
... some sign of greed or avarice in the informer's wily countenance. To his surprise, he saw none. Instead, Yada assumed an almost sanctimonious air. He seemed to consider ...
— The Orange-Yellow Diamond • J. S. Fletcher
... American pilot to remain with him. He, however, declined the risk, declaring it was impossible to capture the schooner with boats, and as she was a remarkably fast sailer, she was sure to escape; should the enterprise not succeed, he would become known as the informer, and be no longer able to act as pilot in the Bahama Channel. This was a disappointment to Captain Walcott, who knowing that two Spanish men-of-war schooners were cruising off the coast, and that there were numerous trading schooners of the same appearance, ...
— How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves - Updated to 1900 • W.H.G. Kingston
... supreme magistrate of the province, and extended their devastations to the cities of Poonah and Hyderabad. I shall never forget, when, to convince me of the fact, one of the chiefs of the Stranglers, who had turned informer against them, caused thirteen bodies to be dug up from the ground beneath my tent, and offered to produce any number from the soil in the ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue
... informer?" he asked himself. "One of these women who apparently are dealers, but are really in the pay of the police, and frequent jewellers for the ...
— Messengers of Evil - Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... may advance the plea: If Germany's military preparations were secret, how could the Social Democrats know of these proceedings? The answer is direct and simple: Every individual Social Democrat—and men, women, and children, they number some twenty millions—has for years past been a spy and informer in the interests of the Umsturzpartei (overthrow-party). All the happenings of the workshop, barracks, farmyard, shop and office have been systematically reported to the local Press, and local committees of ...
— What Germany Thinks - The War as Germans see it • Thomas F. A. Smith
... gives up someone for a reward is no better than a common informer," went on Bunting obstinately. "And no man 'ud care to be called that! It's different for you, Joe," he added hastily. "It's your job to catch those who've done anything wrong. And a man'd be a fool who'd ...
— The Lodger • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... sinking toward the horizon and the woods were cold. The informer rose and walked back and forth on the soggy carpet of rotted leaves with hands that clasped and unclasped themselves at his back. He was under a stress of feeling that bordered ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck
... policy the names of these informers were withheld from publication, but they were well known, of course, to the Negroes of Charleston. The published documents said of the chief informer, "It would be a libel on the liberality and gratitude of this community to suppose that this man can be overlooked among those who are to be rewarded for their fidelity and principle." The author has been informed that his reward for betraying his people ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley
... hung my nephew! Gibbet 'em all the three. Young Kemp's mother's a bad 'un. An informer he is. ...
— Romance • Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer
... remember the English do not detain a man on bare suspicions, and but shabbily reward an informer. On the other hand, twenty colonati are yours, if you do my bidding. I do not want an answer—you are not a fool. Now row on shore as fast ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... chair, and smoked with his eyes negligently turned on the informer, and his pen ready to reduce him to more writing. Lightwood also smoked, with his eyes negligently turned on ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens
... she shouted, in a deep voice, strangely cracked. "And so you're at your old tricks again, are you? Talking sedition I'll be bound. I've half a mind to turn informer and have the law on you. The dear lamb!" she added, ...
— The Workingman's Paradise - An Australian Labour Novel • John Miller
... Somerset, and had stood for Bristol in 1812. Though a prominent speaker, he in no sense directed the movement. Burdett and Cochrane, the orthodox leaders of London reformers, were not concerned in this demonstration, which, according to an informer who gave evidence, was to be the signal for an attack upon the Tower and other acts of atrocity. As it was, before Hunt chose to appear, the mob, headed by the younger Watson, broke into gunsmiths' shops, not without bloodshed, and marched through ...
— The Political History of England - Vol XI - From Addington's Administration to the close of William - IV.'s Reign (1801-1837) • George Brodrick
... enjoined even add something if you possibly can. And yet do not be agitated, for I know you well, and am not ignorant of "how love is all compact of thought and fear." But the matter, I hope, is going to be less formidable in the end than it was at its beginning. That fellow Vettius, our old informer, promised Caesar, as far as I can make out, that he would secure young Curio being brought under some suspicion of guilt. Accordingly, he wormed his way into intimacy with the young man, and having, as is proved, often met him, at last went the length of telling him that he had resolved ...
— The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 - The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... affected a haughty indifference to the doings of Wesley Elliot, which did not for a moment deceive her keen-eyed informer. ...
— An Alabaster Box • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Florence Morse Kingsley
... and degraded, and a mark for the finger of scorn to point at, Clement Lanyere, whose prospects had once been fair enough, as his features had been prepossessing, became soured and malevolent, embittered against the world, and at war with society. He turned promoter, or, in modern parlance, informer; lodging complaints, seeking out causes for prosecutions, and bringing people into trouble in order to obtain part of the forfeits they incurred for his pains. Strange to say, he attached himself to Sir Giles Mompesson,—the cause of all ...
— The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 - An Historical Romance • W. Harrison Ainsworth
... the more readily to detect a practice so shameful and iniquitous, the governor judged it requisite to hold out a reward to those who would come forward and give such information as should be sufficient to prove the offence, by offering one-third of the sum forfeited to the informer. The settlers were also called upon to give information of any labouring man who, on offering himself for hire, should refuse to accept the regulated wages. As such person must be incapable of living in this country without work, he was immediately ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 2 • David Collins
... Helicon; that said Hamilton Paul shall be deprived of all aid in future from these goddesses, and be sent to draw his inspiration from the dry fountain of earthly beauty; and that, furthermore, all the favours taken from the said Hamilton Paul shall accrue to the informer and petitioner!" ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... except that he had lost the younger of his two sons. On the other hand, he had lived to see his elder and more promising son succeed in life and obtain the consulship. He had injured his reputation under Nero. It was believed he had acted as an informer. But afterwards, while enjoying Vitellius's friendship, he had conducted himself with courtesy and prudence. He had gained much credit by his proconsulship in Asia, and had since by an honourable leisure wiped out the blot which stained ...
— A History of Roman Literature - From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius • Charles Thomas Cruttwell
... he had copied out that morning, to the one name which had arrested his attention especially. He remembered that James Finlay owed him a grudge, desired revenge; he felt sure that James Finlay was the informer. Others might have betrayed the secrets of the society. James Finlay alone, so far as he could recollect, had any motive for incriminating ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham
... bit of information for any skunk among your cowardly lot,' said McKeith. 'I've offered one hundred pounds reward for the scoundrels who cut my horses' throats and robbed my drays on the road to Tunumburra. There's a chance for you, if you're mean enough to turn informer.' ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed
... his informer was in a dripping perspiration and hardly able to stand from fright. He saw nothing beyond a dawning fear that ...
— Sunlight Patch • Credo Fitch Harris
... led-captain and cardsharper, whom he had himself employed on occasion. The third man stood apart and appeared from his gesticulations to be speaking rapidly. He wore his own sandy hair, and every line of his mean freckled face told of excitement and fear. Him also Lovel recognised—Carstairs, a Scotch informer who had once made a handsome living through spying on conventicles, but had now fallen into poverty owing to conducting an affair of Buckingham's with a brutality which that fastidious nobleman had not bargained for.... Lovel rubbed his eyes and looked again. He knew likewise the man on the ...
— The Path of the King • John Buchan
... conciliant de la reponse serbe a l'ultimatum, le Ministre d'Autriche vient d'informer, a 6-1/2 du soir, le Gouvernement Serbe par note, que n'ayant pas recu an delai fixe une reponse satisfaisante il quitte Belgrade avec tout le personnel de la Legation. La Scoupchtina est convoquee a Nich pour le 14/27 Juillet. Le Gouvernement Serbe et le Corps Diplomatique ...
— Why We Are At War (2nd Edition, revised) • Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History
... act; but in privateers, according to the agreement between the owners. By statute 13 Geo. II. c. 4, judges and officers failing in their duty in respect to the condemnation of prizes, forfeit L500, with full costs of suit, one moiety to the crown, and the other to the informer. Prize, according to jurists, is altogether a creature of the crown; and no man can have any interest but what he takes as the mere gift of the crown. Partial interest has been granted away at different times, ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... escape the machinations of those who had lain a web that had already entangled the lord of Wythburn himself? Every one who had served in the trained bands of the Parliament was at the mercy of any man, who, for the gratification of personal spite, chose to become informer against him. ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine
... by letting the contents of both of his instruments of death pierce the ceiling of his story and a half shack. I have wondered many times since that I am alive. We had been told by a fellow passenger that Atchison was a little short of Hades, and we were fast realizing that our informer was not far out of the way; yet, it was a haven in comparison to other places at which we were yet to arrive. Commanche William, or whatever his right name might have been, was a different person after ...
— Dangers of the Trail in 1865 - A Narrative of Actual Events • Charles E Young
... have told me at once," grumbled the veteran. "Well, I didn't take the story. The informer said that she would place it elsewhere. I told her that if she did I would publish the whole circumstances of her visit and offer, and make New York too hot to hold her. She retired, bulging with venom like a mad snake. But she dares ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... And the informer was right, for Caesar's countenance brightened. He did, indeed, blame the Egyptian's overhasty action; but he gave no orders for following ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... Waller's design is variously related. In Clarendon's History, it is told, that a servant of Tomkyns, lurking behind the hangings, when his master was in conference with Waller, heard enough to qualify him for an informer, and carried his intelligence to Pym. A manuscript, quoted in the Life of Waller, relates, that "he was betrayed by his sister Price, and her presbyterian chaplain, Mr. Goode, who stole some of his papers; and, if he had not ...
— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson
... as detestable, especially by those born in the woods, whose only crime consisted in avenging the wrongs done to their forefathers." But if martial virtues be virtues, such were theirs. Not a rebel ever turned traitor or informer, ever flinched in battle or under torture, ever violated a treaty or even a private promise. But it was their power of endurance which was especially astounding; Stedman is never weary of paying tribute to this, or of illustrating it in sickening ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 • Various
... each registered house. The Superintendent of Police, having refused to allow his force to operate as inspectors of brothels, in 1860 the first inspector was appointed, and he engaged an English policeman named Barnes to render services as an informer. This man brought charges in two cases, as to unlicensed (unregistered) brothels. The second case ended in acquittal, manifestly on the ground that the charges were trumped up. In the same year another inspector, Williams, acted as informer, and secured a conviction against a woman. Later, an inspector ...
— Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers • Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew and Katharine Caroline Bushnell
... Jerusalem, and their little game is up, their eagle moults, the history of Europe is altered. But what good would all that do Montague Tigg? Will it so much as put that delightful coin, a golden sovereign, in the pocket of his nether garments? No, Tigg is no informer; a man who has charged at the head of his regiment on the coast of Africa is no vulgar spy. There is more to be got by making the Count pay through the nose, as we say; chanter, as the French say; "sing a song ...
— Old Friends - Essays in Epistolary Parody • Andrew Lang
... "they only obeyed orders. I shall let them go this time, if they will tell me the name of the informer." ...
— The Hero of Ticonderoga - or Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys • John de Morgan
... these were, in most cases, delated to the Head of the House to which a young man belonged; who, as a vigilant guardian of the purity of his undergraduates' Protestantism, received the information with thankfulness, and perhaps asked the informer to dinner. It cannot be denied that in some cases this course of action succeeded in frightening and sobering the parties towards whom it was directed. White was thus reclaimed to be a devoted son and useful minister of the Church of England; but it was a kill-or-cure ...
— Loss and Gain - The Story of a Convert • John Henry Newman
... previously determined that Philip was a dangerous neighbor; they had publicly evinced their distrust, and had done enough to insure his hostility; according, therefore, to the usual mode of reasoning in these cases, his destruction had become necessary to their security. Sausaman, the treacherous informer, was shortly afterwards found dead in a pond, having fallen a victim to the vengeance of his tribe. Three Indians, one of whom was a friend and counsellor of Philip, were apprehended and tried, and on the testimony of one very questionable ...
— The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. • Washington Irving
... any harm in going to Dan's, because Kenrick, one of the monitors, had done the same thing." At the time, Dr Lane had contemptuously silenced him, with the remark, "that he would gain nothing by turning informer;" but as Dr Lane was always kept pretty well informed of all that went on by the Famulus, he had reason to suspect, and even to know, that what Jones said was in this instance true. He knew, too, from other quarters ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar
... man, as an Irishman of very meane and low condition afterwards acknowledged, that beinge brought to him as an evidence of one parte of the charge against the Lord Lieuetenant in a particular of which a person of so vyle quality would not be reasonably thought a competent informer, M'r Pimm gave him mony to buy him a Sattyn Sute and Cloke, in which equipage he appeared at the tryall, and gave his evidence, which if true, may make many other thinges which were confidently reported afterwards of him, to be believed: As, that he receaved a greate Summ of mony from the French ...
— Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles • Various
... informer," sobbed Kate. "He came down here to spy on you, uncle, and to try and show that the blessed miracle was a makeshift. I knew it long before he told me, by his insulting ways. He wanted to make love ...
— The Miraculous Revenge - Little Blue Book #215 • Bernard Shaw |
