Then, by the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering
and falling, and their supporters turning to run.

I stood staring, not as yet realising that this was death leaping
from man to man in that little distant crowd.  All I felt was that it
was something very strange.  An almost noiseless and blinding flash of
light, and a man fell headlong and lay still; and as the unseen shaft
of heat passed over them, pine trees burst into fire, and every dry
furze bush became with one dull thud a mass of flames.  And far away
towards Knaphill I saw the flashes of trees and hedges and wooden
buildings suddenly set alight.