  We report results of the first search specifically targeting short-timescale
X-ray flares from low-mass X-ray binaries in an early-type galaxy. A new method
for flare detection is presented. In NGC 4697, the nearest, optically luminous,
X-ray faint elliptical galaxy, 3 out of 157 sources are found to display flares
at >99.95% probability, and all show more than one flare. Two sources are
coincident with globular clusters and show flare durations and luminosities
similar to (but larger than) Type-I X-ray superbursts found in Galactic neutron
star (NS) X-ray binaries (XRBs). The third source shows more extreme flares.
Its flare luminosity (~6E39 erg/s) is very super-Eddington for an NS and is
similar to the peak luminosities of the brightest Galactic black hole (BH)
XRBs. However, the flare duration (~70 s) is much shorter than are typically
seen for outbursts reaching those luminosities in Galactic BH sources.
Alternative models for the flares are considered.
