lightning bolt

Shortly after dinner one day — it was a hot summer afternoon — a very severe thunderstorm broke out over the city and after it had lasted some ten to fifteen minutes an exceptionally bright lightning bolt flashed through the air followed immediately by a terrific crash of thunder.

In this sense there was an uncomfortable similarity between the lettre de cachet, the “lightning bolt of despotism,” and the people that judged, not like a court of law, but like a force of nature.