I stood close by, but could not tell which blows told and which did not, they fell and vanished so like
flashes of light.
Innumerable fires, which, amid that trackless waste of snow, burned pale and scarcely sent out any gleams, illumined here and there by sudden
flashes forms and faces that were barely human.
All the quiet lustre of the ice-walls was at once changed into
flashes of lightning.
If you wound the optic nerve, you merely see
flashes of light,-- just as disease of the auditory nerve merely means a humming in our ears.
The noble and distinguished air of Athos, those
flashes of greatness which from time to time broke out from the shade in which he voluntarily kept himself, that unalterable equality of temper which made him the most pleasant companion in the world, that forced and cynical gaiety, that bravery which might have been termed blind if it had not been the result of the rarest coolness-such qualities attracted more than the esteem, more than the friendship of D'Artagnan; they attracted his admiration.
The light made the two swords appear like
flashes of lightning; as for the men, they were scarcely perceptible, the darkness was so great.
The general who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret recesses of the earth; he who is skilled in attack
flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven.
After a time the hot, dangerous
flashes of the rifles were visible.
I mean that all these cries, all these complaints, these curses, produce nothing but storms and
flashes and that is all; but the lightning will not strike until there is a hand to guide it.
The running of the horses that have broken loose; the snorting, stamping, and rearing of those which remain fast; the howling of dogs; the yelling of Indians; the scampering of white men, and red men, with their guns; the overturning of lodges, and trampling of fires by the horses; the
flashes of the fires, lighting up forms of men and steeds dashing through the gloom, altogether make up one of the wildest scenes of confusion imaginable.
