Between 1764 and 1767 a mysterious creature called the Beast ravaged the rural region of Gévaudan, France. About 100 men, women and children reportedly fell victim to La Bête du Gévaudan. While many French at the time presumed the Beast to be a wolf and many modern scholars agree, some have suggested that the Beast may not have been a wolf at all.
So what was it?
'Like a Wolf, Yet Not a Wolf'
The first recorded fatal attack of the Beast occurred on June 30, 1764 when a 14-year-old shepherdess, Jeanne Boulet, tended a flock of sheep. Boulet was not the creature’s first victim. As historian Jay M. Smith writes in Monsters of the Gévaudan, about two months prior, a young woman tending cattle was attacked by a creature “like a wolf, yet not a wolf” but escaped because the herd defended her.
The attacks continued through the summer and into autumn, according to George M. Eberhart’s 2002 book, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology. France was in a slump at the time, on the heels of the Seven Years’ War. The nation had lost battles to Prussia and the British and Louis XV had lost overseas colonies. The Beast offered a perfect foil to rally around—and there was no dearth of reports in the press about encounters with the animal.
The bête féroce (ferocious beast) attacked and partially ate women and the young, according to the reports, but lone adult men were also targets. There were so many attacks that some speculated there were in fact two or more beasts.
The terrified populace of Gévaudan did not sit idle—and individual stories of bravery captivated the public. As Smith writes, bounties were offered and hunters combed the countryside looking for the creature. On October 8, 1764, hours after a mauling, the Beast was seen at Chateau de la Baume, stalking a herdsman. Hunters followed the animal into the estate’s woods and flushed the animal into the open. The hunters shot a volley of musket fire into the creature—but after a fall, the Beast rose and ran off.
King Louis XV Dispatches Hunters
The Beast of Gévaudan
Even children were celebrated for taking on the Beast. On January 12, 1765, the Beast attacked 10-year-old Jacques Portefaix and a group of seven friends ranging from ages eight to 12. However, Portefaix led a counterattack with sticks driving off the creature. The children were rewarded by Louis XV, and Portefaix was given an education paid by the crown.
The children’s heroics prompted the court of King Louis XV to send royal hunters to destroy the Beast. There was now a 6,000-livre bounty on the creature’s head. The story of the Beast, meanwhile, was spreading and covered in newspapers from Boston to Brussels, becoming one of history’s first media sensations.
Among the most notable tales of bravery was when 19- or 20-year-old Marie-Jeanne Valet was attacked by the Beast on August 11, 1765 while crossing the River Desges with her sister. Armed with a bayonet affixed to a pole, Valet impaled the Beast’s chest. The creature got away, but Valet became known as the “Amazon” and the “Maid of Gévaudan.”
Large Wolf Is Shot by King’s Gunbearer
On September 20, 1765, Francois Antoine, the king’s 71-year-old gunbearer, and his nephew shot a large wolf near an abbey at Chazes which was assumed to be the Beast. Antoine was awarded with money and titles and the corpse of the animal was stuffed and sent to the royal court.
But attacks started again in December, according to an account in the 1898 volume of the Parisian Illustrated Review. This time, the Beast seemed different, at least behaviorally. Where before the creature had been afraid of cattle, this time it showed no fear. Was this then a second Beast?
The royal court chose to ignore these new attacks, insisting that Antoine had killed the creature. Finally, a sudden outbreak of attacks in early June 1767 compelled a local nobleman, the Marquis d’Apcher, to organize a hunt. On June 19, one of the hunters, a local man named Jean Chastel, shot a wolf on the slopes of Mount Mouchet.
An autopsy of the animal revealed human remains inside, and the animal had non-wolf characteristics as described by witnesses. The attacks ended, but while it was assumed that the beast Chastel bagged was the Beast, doubts remained that it was indeed a wolf.
Description and Behavior of the Beast
The Beast was consistently described by eyewitnesses as something other than a typical wolf. It was as large as a calf or sometimes a horse. Its coat was reddish gray with a long, strong panther-like tail. The head and legs were short-haired and the color of a deer. It had a black stripe on its back and “talons” on its feet. Many drawings of the Beast at the time endow it with lupine characteristics.
Witnesses described the Beast as an ambush hunter which stalked its prey and seized it by the throat. The wounds found on the bodies were typically to the head and limbs with the remains of 16 victims reportedly decapitated. The creature prowled in the evenings and in the mornings.
0 Comments