In no other way can be explained the madness which sped the victims of that tragedy to their ruin; for with the enemy at their very gates, the Muslims set up and displaced kings, plotted and Counterplotted.
"The Land of The Blessed Virgin; Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia"
William Somerset Maugham
The great city roared without; Orestes plotted, and Cyril Counterplotted, and the fate of a continent hung-or seemed to hang-trembling in the balance; but the turmoil of it no more troubled those lazy Titans within, than did the roll and rattle of the carriage-wheels disturb the parakeets and sunbirds which peopled, under an awning of gilded wire, the inner court of Pelagia's house.
"Hypatia or, New Foes with an Old Face"
Charles Kingsley