The Beast of Gévaudan
In the mountainous region of Gévaudan, today the department of Lozère, a monstrous creature roamed between June 1764 and June 1767 that no hunter could bring down. The beast tore apart shepherds, shepherdesses and children, evaded the king’s dragoons, and became the terror of all France. To this day no one knows for certain what the Bête du Gévaudan was.
1 The first attacks
On 1 June 1764, a shepherdess from Saint-Etienne-de-Lugdarès was tending her cows in the forest of Mercoire, on the border between Gévaudan and Vivarais. Suddenly a large beast charged at her — not a wolf, she would later swear, but something stranger, with a short muzzle, glittering eyes and a coat like that of a wild boar. The bulls of her herd drove the creature off. She survived, but it was the first appearance of what would soon be called «la Bête».
On 30 June the first victim was claimed: Jeanne Boulet, fourteen years old, killed at Les Hubacs. When she was buried on 1 July, the priest wrote in the parish register «tuée par la bête féroce» — killed by the ferocious beast. It was the first of nearly a hundred entries that would follow over three years.
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