"Master Jacques," he cried, "let fate take its course!" The procurator wheeled round in affright; it seemed to him that
pincers of iron had clutched his arm.
Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with
pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards.
The front pair of legs terminate in very strong and heavy
pincers, and the last pair are fitted with others weaker and much narrower.
Another has the toothache: the carpenter out
pincers, and clapping one hand upon his bench bids him be seated there; but the poor fellow unmanageably winces under the unconcluded operation; whirling round the handle of his wooden vice, the carpenter signs him to clap his jaw in that, if he would have him draw the tooth.
The general presented the ambassador with a rich robe, and returned this gallant answer: "That he and his fellow-soldiers were come with an intention to drive Mahomet out of these countries, which he had wrongfully usurped; that his present design was, instead of returning back the way he came, as Mahomet advised, to open himself a passage through the country of his enemies; that Mahomet should rather think of determining whether he would fight or yield up his ill-gotten territories, than of prescribing measures to him; that he put his whole confidence in the omnipotence of God and the justice of his cause, and that to show how just a sense he had of Mahomet's kindness, he took the liberty of presenting him with a looking-glass and a pair of
pincers."
Next he opened the dead man's mouth, and by the help of a pair of
pincers drew the bone from his throat.
When they adhere to the shell, the fishermen often pull them off with
pincers; but the most common way is to lay the oysters on mats of the seaweed which covers the banks.
Pincers and hammers, mallets and chisels would not get it out of my grip; no, nor lions' claws; the soul from out of my body first!"
As for him, the need of accommodating himself to her nature, which was inflexible in proportion to its negations, held him as with
pincers. He had begun to have an alarmed foresight of her irrevocable loss of love for him, and the consequent dreariness of their life.
The same silence, and then, ere the host could oppose his design, Grimaud seized a pair of
pincers he perceived in a corner and forced the bolt.
But he ran on into the middle of the street, with a slipper on one foot and a sock on the other; he still had on his apron, and still held the gold chain and the
pincers in his hands, and so he stood gazing up at the bird, while the sun came shining brightly down on the street.
"I made myself some; and with the exception of a file, I have all that are necessary, -- a chisel,
pincers, and lever."