Only the child who has surprised him at odd moments, when he thought himself quite alone, wringing his hands and weeping over some intolerable memory-who has listened in the dead of night to his smothered but heart-breaking groans, can know either his suffering or the one joy which palliates it.
"Three Thousand Dollars"
Anna Katharine Green
But I find him modest in this point; and knowing too well they are not a Court of Judicature, he does not defend them from Arbitrary Proceedings, but only excuses, and palliates the matter, by saying, that it concern'd the Rights of the People, in suppressing their Petitions to the Fountain of Justice.
"His Majesties Declaration Defended"
John Dryden
Mr. Sheridan, on every occasion, palliates all their massacres committed in every part of France, as the effects of a natural indignation at the exorbitances of despotism, and of the dread of the people of returning under that yoke.
"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12)"
Edmund Burke