Adventurings in the PsychicalBruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Science
Adventurings in the Psychical
Bruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Parapsychology
The same conclusion was forced upon two ladies, Miss Elizabeth Morison
and Miss Frances Lamont, in connection with a visit paid by them to
another famous haunted house, the Petit Trianon at Versailles, the
favorite summer home of that unfortunate queen Marie Antoinette, whose
ghost, as well as the ghosts of her attendants, has long been alleged to
be visible at times in and around it. Miss Morison and Miss Lamont had
been sightseeing in the royal palace, but tiring of this had set off, in
the early afternoon, to walk to the Trianon. Neither of them knew just
where it was located, but taking the general direction indicated on
Baedeker's map, they finally came to a broad drive, which, had they only
known it, would have led them directly to their destination. As it was,
they crossed the drive and went up a narrow lane through a thick wood to
a point where three paths diverged. Here they began to have a series
of experiences which, comparatively insignificant in themselves, had a
sequel so amazing that it would be incredible were it not that the
veracity of both ladies has been established beyond question.[1]
[1] In a prefatory note to the book, "An Adventure," in which
these ladies detail their experience, their publishers,
Messrs. Macmillan and Company, of London, guarantee "that the
authors have put down what happened to them as faithfully and
accurately as was in their power." Their good faith is also
vouched for by a reviewer in _The Spectator_.
Ahead of them, on the middle path, they saw two men clad in curious,
old-fashioned costumes of long, greenish coats, knee breeches, and
small, three-cornered hats. Taking them for gardeners, they asked to be
shown the way, and were told to go straight ahead. This brought them to
a little clearing that had in it a light garden kiosk, circular and like
a bandstand, near which a man was seated. As they approached, he turned
his head and stared at them, and his expression was so repellent that
they felt greatly frightened. The next instant, coming from they knew
not where, and breathless as if from running, a second man appeared, and
speaking in French of a peculiar accent, ordered them brusquely to turn
to the right, saying that the Trianon lay in that direction. Just as
they reached it, they were again intercepted, this time by a young
man who stepped out of a rear door, banged it behind him, and with a
somewhat insolent air guided them to the main entrance of the palace.
While they were hurrying thither, Miss Morison noticed a lady, seated
below a terrace, holding out a paper as though reading at arm's length.
She glanced up as they passed, and Miss Morison, observing with surprise
the peculiar cut of her gown, saw that she had a pretty "though not
young" face.
"I looked straight at her," she adds in the published statement she has
made regarding their adventure, "but some indescribable feeling made me
turn away, disturbed at her being there."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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