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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 53, 3 July 1862, Page 3

A correspondent sends the following remarkable story to th e Dublin Evening Mail: —“This is the age of discovery, and one of such a startling nature has just been made in an English county that it seems out of place in the region sober fact, and to belong purely to the atmosphere of the threevolume novel. Here are the circumstances; the names for the moment I am not at liberty to indicate :—The carl of married not long ago, and brought his bride home to one of the old family mansions which members of the English aristocracy regard with an affection amounting to veneration. The lady, however, being more continental in her tastes, after a short residence in the apartment appropriated to her use, expressed a wish to have a boudoir in the vicinity of her bedroom. The noble earl would gladly have complied with the request, but, upon examination, it was found that the rooms, as sometimes happens in antique buildings, were so awkwardly distributed that by no conceivable plan of rearrangement could the desired boudoir be fitted. Thereupon it became necessary to invoke professional assistance, and an eminent architect was summoned from London. He examined the house narrowly, and said there seemed to bo nothing for it but to build one, though at the same time ho coidd not resist the impression that there must be another undiscoveaed room some where in that wing of the mansion. The noble earl laughed at the idea ; the oldest servants and retainers of the family were questioned, and declared that they had never heard even a rumour of its existence. The ordinary methods of tapping, &c. were resorted to, but without effect. Still the architect retained his conviction, and declared himself ready to stake his professional reputation on the result. The carl at last consented to let the walls be bored, and, when an opening had been made, not only was the room found, but a sight presented itself which almost defeats attempts at description. The apartment was fitted up in the richest and most luxurious style of 150 years ago. A quantity of lady's apparel lay about the room, jewels were scattered on the dressing table, the chamber might have been tenanted half an hour previously. On approaching the bed the most curious sight of all was seen, and this it is which alfords the only clue to the mystciy. The couch held the skeleton of the woman ; and on the lloor underneath the bed, half in and half out, lay another skeleton, that of a man, presenting evident traces of violence, anil proving that, before lie expired in that position, he must have received some dreadful injury. The secret connected with this tale of blood has been well kept for not merely has all tradition of flic scene faded away, but even the existence of the room itself was forgotten. The survivors probably walleduptboapartment at the time, and its contents remained hermetically sealed up till the present day, when, according to the best calculations, alter the lapse of a century and a half daylight has accidentally penetrated into this chamber of horrors.” Law;i; Guvs.— The advantage of increasing the range and power of gnus is by no means a now one. Wherever active and energetic nations have been long at war, the attempt has been made, and it lias been usually found that a new piece of arTUery produced extraordinary effect. Every reader will recollect the monstrous cannon which Mahomet 11. took to the siege of Constantinople, and which carried with it almost as many (errors as the whole army of the Ottoman. In our own civil war one of the last places which held out for the King—Castle Elizabeth, in Jersey —-was captured by the aid of a similar machine. “ W lien it was not possible,” says Clai-endon, “for the troops of the Parliament to come within balf-a-milo of the place, they brought mortars of such an incredible greatness, and such as bad never before been seen in this part of the world, that from the highest point of the hill, near St. Hilary's, they shot granadoes of a vast bigness into the castle, and beat down many houses and at last hlowed up a great magazine.” The Eronch did the same at the siege of Cadiz, producing a mortar exceeding in calibre all pieecs then known ; and though it, is true that, for a lime, the theory of large guns was discarded in favour of more manageable art'Tcry, the earlier doctrine is now regaining favour. We have been wise, however, in time, even guns (bat throw a shell four miles can do no harm to Portsmouth when the now lines are finished, and onr arsenal will bo secure a frail st all attacks.— Times. Among the aneccdotcs narrated of the Japanese ambassadors during their stay at Marseilles, it is said that they presented a cigar to each of the policemen placed at the door of their hotel to keep off the crowd. The cigars were composed of tobacco and opium, and (hey made the smokers quite drowsy. The next police inspector who passed was surprised to find the men asleep at their post. By the London Gazelle of April 9 wc find that the Queen has been pleased to approve of Friedrich August Kanll as Consul atWellington, New Zealand for the free Hanseatic City of Hamburgh. It is rumoured that the Home Government are about to make a demand on the Now Zealand authorities for an additional £2,000 a year towards the expcnccs of postal communication. A hatter in Washington lias invented a hat that cannot be blown off in a gale. The editors of one of the papers says, “ If this hat was not wind proof, we would give it a puff.”