I'm a historian specializing in 18th century France, and I need to tell you about something that still haunts me after years of research. Between 1764 and 1767, something killed over a hundred people in the rural province of Gévaudan. That's modern-day Lozère, in south-central France. Now, the official story says it was wolves. But when you actually look at the witness accounts, the attack patterns, the descriptions, it doesn't add up. And I've read every single document that still exists from that time. The first confirmed victim was a 14-year-old shepherdess named Jeanne Boulet. June 30th, 1764. She was tending her flock near the village of Les Hubacs when something attacked her. By the time they found her, well, let's just say it was brutal. Throat torn out. That became the pattern. But here's what people don't know. Two months before Jeanne died, there was another attack that went unreported. A young woman tending cattle near the Mercoire Forest. She saw this thing coming at her, and she said it was quote, like a wolf, yet not a wolf. The bulls in her herd charged it, drove it off. She got lucky. Jeanne didn't.
Throughout the summer and fall of 1764, more attacks happened. Always in broad daylight, which is weird right off the bat. Wolves don't usually hunt during the day. And the victims were almost exclusively women and children out alone with livestock. The thing seemed to target them specifically. The descriptions that came out of Gévaudan were consistent, and they didn't describe a normal wolf. People said it was the size of a young calf. Reddish-brown fur with a dark stripe running down its back. The head looked wrong, more like a greyhound with a flattened snout. And the tail was way too long for a wolf, with this big tuft at the end. Some witnesses claimed even stranger things. That it could walk on its hind legs. That it could leap over walls a dog couldn't clear. That bullets just bounced off it. Now, I don't put much stock in the supernatural claims, but the physical descriptions match up across dozens of independent witnesses. That means something. By December 1764, rumors started circulating that there might be two of these things. The attacks were happening too close together, sometimes on the same day in locations miles apart. read that wolves were a huge problem back then in France - Diana' Some witnesses even reported seeing a smaller one accompanying the larger beast.
The Bishop of Mende, that's the local diocese, he declared the beast a scourge from God. Punishment for sins. He ordered prayers and penance. Forty hours of devotion for three straight Sundays. The attacks kept happening. But some people fought back. January 12th, 1765. Ten-year-old Jacques Portefaix and seven other children, ages eight to twelve, were in a meadow when the beast attacked. Jacques organized the kids. They formed a group, used their walking sticks, and they actually drove it off. Can you imagine? Children fighting off something that had killed grown adults. King Louis XV heard about Jacques and rewarded all the kids. He even paid for Jacques to get an education. That got the crown's attention, if you know what I mean. They sent Captain Jean Baptiste Duhamel and 57 dragoons to hunt it down. Duhamel tried everything. Organized massive hunts with thousands of locals. Left poisoned bait. He even had some of his soldiers dress as peasant women to lure the thing out. Nothing worked. He got close a few times, but the beast always escaped.
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