Sentence No. 85 · 20 June 2026
No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling an audience to sit silent and be tormented.
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers
Anthony Trollope — Barchester Towers (1857) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The phrase "the power of compelling an audience to sit silent and be tormented" ends with two parallel infinitive complements joined by "and." When you see paired verb phrases like "sit" and "be," they belong together at the close — neither opens the sentence.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 7 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. A clergyman reflects on the captive nature of a sermon's audience. Putting it back in the author’s order is the puzzle — and the order is rarely arbitrary, which is what the note above is about.
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