d'eclair

Updated: May 29, 2025

I muttered some half-coherent inquiries. "It was a coup d'eclair, Captain," said Raoul. Good heavens! We had been struck by lightning! Raoul, being in the advance, had escaped. The Frenchman soon left me and went to Clayley, who, with Chane and the hunter, lay close by all three, as I thought, dead.

Mayne Reid - The Rifle Rangers

For the blow, so sudden and sweeping, seems given by God's own hand. They might fancy it a coup d'eclair. But the jets of fire shooting forth from the forest edge, through a cloud of sulphurous smoke, are not flashes of lightning; nor the rattle that accompanies them the rolling of thunder, but the reports of firearms discharged in rapid succession.

Mayne Reid - The Lone Ranche