Miss Moberly’s and Miss Jourdain’s adventure is listed amongst the subject matter on a website by The Museum of Hoaxes, the title alone leaving little doubt as to the opinions formed. The website states as the women believed they witnessed something mysterious during their visit to the Petit Trianon, whether consciously or not, they embellished their evidence to reassure themselves, and much of the general public of a genuine ghost sighting at Versailles. This conclusion seems to have been inspired by William Salter’s comments published in his 1950 note, in which he inferred the ladies’ original narratives were probably edited after they conducted their own research, at a much later date than 1901. In his note he generally surmised ‘the authors recorded, investigated and published their experience in such a way as to leave the whole affair in an impenetrable fog of uncertainty’. Yet does the ladies’ adventure deserve to be labelled as a hoax? A hoax is generally defined as an action to jokingly deceive others, however the research and evidence presented in all editions of ‘An Adventure’ does not convey this idea. If setting up a hoax was in fact the …show more content…
The article stated two Englishwomen in the company of a guide were terrified by the sight of many figures ‘enveloped in a halo’, not far from where they stood. The ladies apparently recognised Queen Marie Antoinette, her friend the Princess de Lamballe, as well as King Louis XVI’s brother the Count d’Artois. The Queen was approached by an officer, who seemed to convey some distressful news to her, when the vision suddenly vanished. After the women ‘recovered from the shock’ they believed they witnessed a scene from the French Revolution, and as a result both were reported to have become ‘converts to