1954-11-13 — Page 5

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THE CHINA MAIL

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, · 1954.

Back us up, Basil: You heard what he said at parado-'Be prepared to take over the docks.""

THE WOLRD'S STRANGEST STORIES-NO. 11

FELIX BARKER relates the extraordinary adventure of the Principal of St. Hugh's and her friend-two rational, sensible Englishwomen at the Versailles

retreat of

Marie-Antoinette

ON AN AUGUST DAY IN 1901

London Express Servicg

THEY STEPPED BACK TO THE

C

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

early luncheon Versailles by the usual chandrifer- palace, and EL next-

LEARLY it was a -they fired 1473

story which xhe

and went out lo train. Thev made must never allow to

tour of the gilded, become towup tattle hung runs of the in North Oxford ir be then M14 Moberly- ridiculed over port in the covered Baedeker open on her Senior Commer Roots of np suggested that they should

visit the Petit Trianon. men's colleges.

They

know much How well Miss Anne about the Titanon except that it arnall eighteenth-century Moberly could imagin the was a

I

id 13!

House 1 the corner of the

reception if she announced grounds which was the resort at some Mini university of Louis XVI's

anit

Marie-Antoinette.

gathering:

"During

the

frivolous

Versailles

Long Vacation WILS

kuch

the

ghost of Marie-Antoinette.**

There would br the shocked silence followed by the dry scholarly jest,

It would go round Oxford like wildfire that the Principal of St Hugh's was suffering from some ridiculous de- lxjot. What talk from an educated Wonu susci daughter of the late Bishop of Salisbury!

In the conservative neademie work of Oxford in 1901 Miss Moberly must have known that she would be the frughing-Stock, that it would be fatal for the reputation of her ille college. of 30 women students struggling for university recognition.

Very Hard

Her companion, too, had the same unpleasant, slightly un- canny feeling.

Their momentary fears were dispelled, however, by the sound of running feet, and the ladies turned round wind a breathless young man who with a cry of Mesdames, mesdames!" told then they must not continue in the direction they were going and indicated a path that led to

small rustic bridge.

Queen, the

tiny ravine that extravagant

So, following the guidebook map, the two ladies set off from The paince. It was Just about

MISS MOBERLY

four o'clock, and ofter a week of boiling days It was a relier to them that the sky was rather overcast and that there was lively wind blowing..

It was only as they ertsseit a they recalled, with something of a shock, that this young man had also been

oddly dressed-that he wore a cloak and buckled shoes and had a large hat over curling hair.

Quite Pretty

You

And it was not until three, pearches stage by stage. months later when they were share their excitement when in back in England and during 1903 there was discovered a map week-end visit which Miss Jour- drawn by Mique-the Queen's dain paid to her friend at Ox- Inudsenpo gardener

the at ford that the most mysterious, Trianon-showing the park as it inexplleable thing of all came

was originally laid out with features (demolished before 1001) which they saw on their welk,

out,

Miss Jourdain had not seen, the seated teoman,

To her the approach to the house had been quite deserted. She could swear

there was no one on the lawn, in vain Miss

Picer after place of historical The evidence fell into, place. Journal of the Queen's dress- maker revealed that in 1780 Moberly tried to coax her man- Marie-Antoinette had a dress

re ory. She was quite ertain which, down to the green fchu. ory but now she came to think of corresponded with the one worn 1 she did remember one unusual by the stated woman; the two thing. As she had approached men of whom they asked the the terrace she had unaccount way were dout in the precise to draw her livery of Louis XVI's gardes des ably felt impelled skirt to one side. It was 03

If parles: they discovered that to make room to pass someone. there was an actual person - Comte de Vaudreuil, à poek-

It was a day or so after hear marked Creole and close friend FEW moments later, after Ing this.

that Miss Moberly, of the Queen-who could have walking through some trees excitement growing, conßded been the stranger at the klask, they came out on a lawn of rough_grees. It led up to the Petit Trianon which lay imme- diately in front of them. The tall windows between the class cal pilasters wer: shuttered, the raised terrace deserted.

For Miss Moberly there then came the climax to the whole episode.

her experiences at Versailles to Mra Balfour anxt diso, under pledge of secrecy, to a number of other friends whose discretion she could trust.

I was then that both ladies started on ten years of pains taking research and amassed all the contributory historical cyldenco which has turned thelf As sho and Miss Jourdain afternoon walk into one of the most famous and debated stories

crossed the lown towards the house she noticed a woman sit- ting just below the terrace. She appeared to be sketching for she was looking at a sheet of paper held at arm's length.

fichu, a low-cut bodice, and a full, rather short skirt

cf this century.

Into the Past

FOR when they returned

to

A Film

THEY did not lack erilles and

there were several times when all the ladies beliefs seem- ed threatened by rational ex- planations, The worst of these was on article in the Fail Mali Gazette they really saw were

that what claiming

Prople taking part in a film about Marie-Antoinette.

which

had been made at Veraallles by the Patho Brothers.

This explanation was, widely necepted until, after. many

The woman, whose face Miss the Peilt Trianon the follow: letters between. Paris and Ok- Moberly saw its they came closing year they discovered that in ford, it was established that the They turned off right down a was not young but quite pretty, BUT after all she had experi-

eneed it was very hard woodland glade and soon came wote a shady, white hat piled on numerable features of the house film was shot not in 1901 but.

Trianon outbuildings. a mass of fair hair. keep silent. Pour Rhodu Bulfour, to the

garden which they had Her light and

in 1910. formerly, had altogether manfully coping on licnormy Here there was a choice of three summer dress, fell across her feen Sceretary of St. Hugh's, nolleed paths and they approached two shoulders in hatidkerchief changed or had disappeared.

Research complete and flow how distraite she was

who they took to during men

be fashion; she wore a pale-green Slowly they came to what quite certain in their own minds the opening wecks of ne gardener: and asked the way.

seemed to them the only that they had seen a vision of Michaelmas "Term. And then

possible solution that for to the past, the two ladies wrote: There was something, rather one November moming Miss

a book about their, findings. It casual. and

the mechanical, could contain

of their Moberly

As they passed close to her duration

walk they herself' Jadles thought, about the way the woman looked up and, for had no longer.

Arst published in 1811. eighteenth century, that the Wats they answered the Inquiry, and prime reason which she or had somehow stepped back into was called "An Adventure and they also noticed the curious not explain, Miss Moberly felt. people

they had met werd shrinking from publicity and Right in the middle of dis- fact that the men were wearing annoyed at her presence.

ghosts of the year 1789 when cussing college business she long

Revolution and greyish-green couts

the French

was perhaps still fearing the effect Tib two Indies climbed up the about to sweep Lous, XVI, HI on their educational-work, they steps to the terrace, skirted the Queen, and the aristocracy of insister for many years old As they continued their walk house and after one other en France to the guillotine

editions that; muthorshin' should Moberly suddenly became counter found themselves at the

be anunymous, Not: Unit 1931 Out it bil came, Into Mrs

conscious of an extraordinary front of the Petit Trianon. Here Miss Moberly became con- and when Miss Jourdain Balfour's sympathetic but

af depression, and Miss all sense of the unusual and the vinced that the woman she had dead did the story appear amazed

car was poured the Jourdain was to say that she uncanny quickly faded his they son was Marie-Antoinette as Under Welt

their own names, whole story of the remarkable had the sensation of walking in way chuaht up in Isikktseeing she was on, the last afternoon experience Miss Moberly and her sleep.

Debatte, which a milde was: con- gne over, spent at Versailles By ND ♬ need

thero wzda her friend, Eleanor Jourdnin;

ducting Find the house, had hau that August at Despite the wind of a few Versailles.

moniente carlier the trees of Miss Jourdian, who was seemed to have assumed the flat, the park wore intensely stil and In her Jate thirtica arki

unctual

appearance, (of a

becks off and told Mrs Balfour tricorn hats. that there was another matter she wanted to discuss.

Mi

senso

some 17 years Miss Moberly's tapestry.

Junior, was the headmlėtreks

uf a girls school' at Walford, A little farther on they ny And the moment.

term, whi countered a man-kitting near

finished the two of them had, circular and columnød kloaki zone over to Paris, for, a forts wore a cloak and h-large, wid night's sightseeing.

On Saturday VLAKNING (104

brimie hat, Vand "whe

looked

Deep Impression

the Trianon

the afternoon when a breath-1 for secrecy No need to fear less micasanger came to her at ridicule, Misa Money now

with a warning old lady of 80 with a failing that the hob was approaching memory, was living quietly. In from Paris.A

retirement in North Har beloved Sp H TRANGE, though the sume How two rational, "highly largo”; and, thrivingdales.

#phor of this Walk had educated, devoutly

Women were at long; last" ad- bith and while their encounters Iddles reaching, the

copled had mase) deep' Impression on can still be, atur

univorally.

etalï'and

was a week begvieliń

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A landmark in the history of The

His only

rival

Johnnie Walker

FINE OLD SCOTCH WHISKY

DAICK

BORN 1820.

STILL GOING

STRONG

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