Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1861-10-09 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

OFFICERS IN A SCRAPE.—WhiIe the extreme penalty of the law was being carried into effect on the Piazza dei Cerchi, under the superintendence of the Roman judicial and military authorities, a sentence less physically severe, but perhaps more morally so, was being put in force, by the French military authorities, against two officers of the 71st Regiment, on the Piazza del Popolo, for having, by their culpable negligence, been instrumental to the mutilation of their regimental flag. It appears that the captain and lieutenant in command of the detachment on guard at the Piazza di San Pietro, before the Pope's palace, had allowed two ladies, not of ancient Roman virtue to pay them a visit in the apartments over the guard room allotted to officers on duty there, and to which there was access through a private door. While they were enjoying the society of these nymphs another officer called at the guard-house, and the captain and lieutenant, unwilling to let the newcomer into the mysteries of the little room upstairs, came down to him, walked with him en the piazza, and sat down in the eafd for some time. But the Ariadnes they had abandoned, finding time hang heavily on their hands, as usual in such cases, began to examine the moveables in the room, and especially the principal ornament it contained, viz., the regimental flag, kept there by the detachment on guard, to be duly presented and waved every time his Holiness passed the piazza to or from the Vatican. Cupidity thrilled through their frail frames as they handled the bullion tassels and the solid gold Solferino metal appended to the tattered banner, still more honoured in its rage if the poet says truly— "Bandicra atiliea, ()nor di eapstaroo " The ladies respected the rags' but abstracted the golden appendages thereto, and with the stolen booty decamped hastily by the back stake. But who will not pity the woe-begone captain and lieutenant as they bore back the bereaved banner to the colonel's quarters on the following morning? The court-martial before which they were tried, sentenced the captain and lieutenant to be degraded, and sent to the bane at Toulon, th 3 former for five years, and the latter, to whose especial keeping the flag was intrusted, for 20 years. Before being carried out, this sentence was forwarded to the Emperor for his approbation, the unfortunate captain being a war-worn veteran, decorated with five medals, and on the point of obtaining his majority ; but Napoleon, although his own career might have reminded him that " Nemo omnibus hoth sapit," was disposed to look on the case with severity. and confirmed the sentence—let us hope for the sake of example and discipline, but with the intention of subsequently mitigating or entirely remitting it. The painful ceremony took place this morning, and had such an effect on the captain that he was strictly watched lest he should wipe out his disgrace by suicide, as he has expressed himself determined to do. —Sheffield Daily Telegraph. DimaoNDe.—lt a diamond has a greenish tinge on the thick veil or covering which it has worn in the mine it will prove a fair and noble gem; if tinged with yellow it will be greasy, soft, and comparatively worthless. Diamonds are often found coloured, and when so are valuable in proportion to the fulness and richness of the tint; as witness Mr. Hope's magnificent blue diamond, and that glorious green gem which forms the button in the King of Simony's state hat. Even perfectly black diamonds have been found, but these are rare; and Mr. Mayer's, in the Great Exhibition, was held to be a great curiosity. It weighed 350 mats (a carat is equal to 3 1-6 grains troy, 6 carats being equal to 19 grains (roy), and was so hard that nothing could cut or polish it, not even the dust of its white brethren. The small, soft, and ill-complexioned diamonds, neither purely colourless nor richly tinged, are broken up for diamond dust worth fifty pounds per ounce, and used for cutting cameos and onyxes, as well as for polishing their uncivilized relations. Indeed, cornelians, agates, cairngorms, &c., could not be engraved by any other agent than diamond dust; though the ancients engraved even the "hyaline corindons" by means of their metal :tools alone, and made no use of diamond dust. But we have lost a few arts, as well as gained many, since the days our bravo old bearded elders. The difference between brilliant, rose, and table diamonds consists only in the cutting. Three hundred and fifty years ago all diamonds were cut with four flat surfaces—these were Indian cut or table diamonds; later they were cut in the form of half a polyhedron resting on a plane section—this was the rose diamond; and a short time after this innovation Mazarin caused twelve to be cut as brilliants, yet known among the crown jewels of France as the Twelve Mazerius. That is, they were cut into the form of two truncated pyramids, the upper, or bizel, being much more truncated than the lower, or collet, and having 32 facets inclined under different angles, while the lower has but 24: 311 ft both of the bizel and collet '  .; each faoet, . side, having its own distinctive name and arbitrary proportion. This is the most effective, but the most wasteful, way of cutting diamonds—about one-half the weight being lost in converting them into brilliants or roses from the rough. —Tens,le Bar.