Freaks of Lightning.

At the last editing of the French academy of sciences, a letter was read from M. A. Parent, giving an account of the effects of a violent stroke of lightning, which fell on the 26th ultimo at Troyes (Aube) in a central quarter of the town, with a noise equal to the report of several pieces of artillery. The phenomenon seems to have been confined to the Rue de la Monnaie; where, at No. 37, a young girl who was standing on the threshold of her dwelling saw a fiery globe, of the size of an orange, fall at her feet, then roll along the street and disappear. She experienced a violent shock, causing a trembling that did not cease until the following day. The pins in her hair were torn away, as well as all the other metal articles she had about her person. Her father, who was leaning against the iron bars of a window of the next house, was paralyzed for a few seconds, and did not recover from the commotion for several days. At No. 24, same street, in the "Election-house," as it is called, the electric fluid fell on a turret behind the house, pierced a hole through the weather-cock, slid down the roof along the zinc which covered it, got inside by loosening the beams that supported the woodwork, broke through a partition, then through the floor into the lower story, made its way through a wall into a garret, got out through a window, ran along the spouts and pipes laid down to the first story; thence passed to the next house, broke into a warehouse where there were some iron stoves, with the usual cast-iron ornaments, such as wreaths, flowers, etc., all of which got faithfully designed on the ceiling with the precision of photography; then melted the wire of a bell, the trace of which it left on the wall, and at length took fancy to some gilt wooden rods intended for sale and wrapped up in paper. These it enriched with fantastic but elegant designs, and after a few more vagaries took its leave.