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| Captain Duhamel, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, would lead the first series of official hunts for the Beast. |
There
were about a dozen attacks and four deaths in October 1764, with three decapitations, the first
of many beheadings by the Beast. The month's first attack, which involved a decapitation, took place on October 7, when a young woman was slaughtered near Apcher, France. This was some distance from the previous slaying, indicating
the Beast had done what some had hoped it would not: It had abandoned its
original haunts, possibly driven away by initial hunts, and had moved on to the environs of Saint-Chély-d’Apcher.
With local hunts fruitless thus far, Étienne Lafont, trustee of the diocese of Mende, contacted his superior, Marie-Joseph-Emmanuel de Guignard de Saint-Priest,
the intendant of Languedoc province, as well as the province’s governor and military
commander, General Jean-Baptiste de Morin—the comte de Moncan. On
October 14, Count Moncan directed that more than 50 dragoons, captained by
staff officer Jean-Baptiste Duhamel, a veteran of the Seven Years'
War, be sent to the area, and that authorities in the Vivarais, the Gévaudan,
Velay, and the Cévennes assist Mr. Duhamel “in destroying the monster or
leopard prowling for some time in the mountains of Vivarais and Gévaudan.”*
*Phil Barnson, http://labetedugevaudan.com/
