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| A mysterious chapel of Saint Mary near the site where the first Beast was killed. There is a Black Virgin within. |
September 1765: The deaths of two 12-year-old girls in September, on the 8th and 13th, evidenced that the affair of the Beast was not over.
A string of
attacks took place during the first half of the month, including one in which
the Beast attacked a man who’d fired upon it, a first.
But on the 20th, after a
pack of wolves, including an immense male, is reported in the woods around a
nunnery, the Abbey of Chazes, near the river Allier, royal gun bearer François Antoine shoots
the first Beast, “the Chazes Wolf.”
The ecstatic hunting party contacted the local surgeon, who was to do a complete autopsy. King Louis XV was determined to know exactly what this animal was.
“Then,” said François Antoine, “it is expected at court.”
After this hunt,
there is a clear abatement in attacks for weeks. There is also a falling off of
the official conversation regarding La Bête du Gévaudan, which means much less
documentation of the continuing story.
The king and his
court are pleased with François Antoine’s feat, but back in the Gévaudan, there
is controversy. Shouldn’t Rinchard be credited since he actually fired the shot
that killed the Beast? And is it truly the Beast?
Meanwhile, this Beast
is prepped for its close-up in Versailles, to be accompanied by Antoine’s
son.
Antoine remained in
the Chazes area to hunt down the rest of the pack.
