The Government also offered a reward for the destruction of the wild beast. The following placard was fixed up in all the cities and towns of Languedoc:—‘By the King and the Intendant of the province of Languedoc. Notice is given to all persons, that His Majesty, being justly affected by the situation of his subjects now exposed to the ravages of the wild beast which for four months past has infested Vivarais and Gévaudan, and being desirous to stop the progress of such a calamity, has determined to promise a reward of six thousand livres to any person or persons who shall kill this animal. Such as are willing to undertake the pursuit of him may previously apply to the Sieur de la Fout, sub-deputy to the Intendant of Meudes, who will give them the necessary instructions agreeably to what has been presented by the ministry on the part of his Majesty.’
A letter from Paris dated the 18th of February, 1765, gives the following circumstantial description of the wild beast:—
‘You know how I acquainted you, some months ago, that Monsieur Bardelle, his son and I, designed going by the Diligence, and opening the New Year at our old friend Monsieur Dura’s chateau, near Babres, in Languedoc. We spent the time very agreeably, our host and his family having done all in their power to make us welcome. The party broke up and took leave the first of this month, amongst whom was Monsieur Lefevre, a counsellor, and two young ladies, who were engaged to pass a week at Monsieur de Sante’s, the curé of Vaistour, about three days’ journey distant from the chateau of Monsieur Dura. The company went away in a berlingo and four, and the footman Michel, on a saddle-horse; the carriage, after the manner here, being drawn by four post-horses, with two postilions, the berlingo having no coach box. The first night the party lay at Guimpe, and set out next morning at nine, to bait half way between that and Roteux, being four posts, and a mountainous barren country, as all the Gévaudan is. The parish of Guimpe had been greatly alarmed by the frequent appearance of, and the horrid destruction made by, the fiery animal that has so long been the terror of the Gévaudan, and is now so formidable that the inhabitants and travellers are in very great apprehension. The bailiff of Guimpe acquainted the party that this animal had been often lurking about the chaussée that week, and that it would be proper to take an escort of armed men, which would protect the carriage; but the gentlemen declined it, and took the ladies under their protection, and set out, on the 2nd of February, very cheerfully. When they had made about two leagues, they observed at a distance a post-chaise, and a man on horseback, coming down the hill of Credi, and whipping the horses very much; and at the descent unfortunately the wheel-horse fell down, and the postilion was thrown off; whereupon the horseman who followed the chaise, advanced to take up the boy, in which moment, when he had got down, we perceived the wild beast so often described make a jump towards the horses, and on the footman’s raising his right hand to draw a cutlass and strike the creature, it pricked up its ears, stood on its hind feet, and, showing its teeth full of froth, turned round and gave the fellow a most violent blow with the swing of its tail. The man’s face was all over blood; and then the monster, seeing the gentleman in the chaise present a blunderbuss at its neck, crept on its forehead to the chaise-step, keeping its head almost under its forelegs, and getting close to the door, reared upright, vaulted into the inside, broke through the other side-glass, and ran at a great rate to the adjoining wood. The blunderbuss missed fire, or it is possible this had been the last day this brute-disturber had moved. The stench left in the carriage was past description, and no cure of burning frankincense, nor any other method removed, but rather increased the stink, so that it was sold for two louis; and though burned to ashes, the cinders were obliged, by order of a commissary, to be buried without the town walls. We came up very well in time; for the beast would doubtless have destroyed some one, had it not espied three of us advancing with guns. It certainly jumped through the chaise to get away from us.’
These accounts appear to have been received with some incredulity abroad. In the same number of Lloyd’s Evening Post that contains the plan of Lord Byron’s trial there occurs the following passage about this curious wild beast: ‘One of the Dutch Gazetteers by Monday’s mail says:—“The accounts of the wild beast seen in the Gévaudan are of such a nature that it is hardly possible to give any credit thereto, and yet most of them have appeared in the Paris Gazette, a paper whose authors, known to be men of letters, are too judicious to be suspected of credulity, too prudent, too well informed of what passes at the Court of the King their master, one should think, to attribute to his Most Christian Majesty a reward for an action which never had any existence—an action which was only a fable.”’ This is, no doubt, an allusion to the reward of 400 livres bestowed upon the boys who beat off the ferocious monster.
While the interest and excitement about this terrible wild beast was at the highest, the St. James’s Chronicle published an engraving and description of it. The St. James’s Chronicle; or the British Evening Post, was a folio of four pages, published three times a-week, price twopence-halfpenny. In the number for June 6, 1765, there is printed the following description and woodcut:—
‘For the St. James’s Chronicle.
‘Of this beast, which has already devoured upwards of seventy Persons and spread Terrour and Desolation throughout the whole Gévaudan, the Sieur de la Chaumette, who lately wounded it, has given us the following Description. It is larger than a Calf of a year old, strongly made before, and turned like a Grayhound behind. His Nose is long and pointed, his Ears upright and smaller than a wolf’s, his Mouth of a most enormous size, and always wide open; a Streak of Black runs from his Shoulders to the Beginning of his Tail. His Paws are very large and strong; the Hair on his Back and Mane thick, bristly, and erect; his Tail long and terminating in a Bush, like that of a Lion; his Eyes small, fierce, and fiery. From this description it appears that he is neither a Wolf, Tiger, nor Hyena, but probably a Mongrel, generated between the two last, and forming, as it were, a new Species. All the accounts lately received agree in assuring that there are several of them.’
| STRANGE WILD BEAST SEEN IN FRANCE. FROM THE ‘ST. JAMES’S CHRONICLE,’ 1765. |
The St. James’s Chronicle does not state from whence the portrait was obtained. A representation of the wild beast of the Gévaudan was sent in April, 1765, to the Intendant of Alençon, and a description of that picture corresponds with the woodcut in the St. James’s Chronicle, so that the latter was probably a copy of the former.
About three months after the publication of the woodcut and description in the St. James’s Chronicle, the career of this much dreaded animal was brought to a close. On Sept. 20th, 1765, it was encountered in the wood of Pommières by a certain Monsieur Beauterme, a gentleman of a distant province and noted as a successful hunter. He had come into the district on purpose to seek out this notorious wild beast, and having found it, shot it in the eye at the distance of about fifty paces. The animal, however, though wounded, showed fight, and was rushing on Monsieur Beauterme with great fury, when he was finally dispatched by a gamekeeper named Reinhard.