326 Wild Beasts 



cial reports, and the testimony of eye-witnesses, a state- 

 ment of the ravages of wolves among domestic animals 

 and human beings that almost equals those mediaeval 

 notices in which their evil deeds have been recorded from 

 one end of Europe to the other. None of these, or rather, 

 none the writer has met with, rival that recital given by 

 James Grant ("The Wild Beast of Gevaudan"). French, 

 Dutch, Belgian, and English journals, during 1765, were 

 full of those events of which a brief abstract is inserted, 

 and their prolonged occurrence finally came to be an affair 

 of grave importance to the government of France. 



In that year a beast, not identified as a wolf until after 

 its death, created a reign of terror in the forest country of 

 Provence and Languedoc, devouring eighty people about 

 Gevaudan. " Qui a devore plus que qtiatrevingt personnes 

 dans Ic Gevaudan,'' says the official report. A drawing 

 (from description) was sent to the Intendant of Alengon, 

 and as this looked more like a hyena than anything else, 

 it was given out that one of these brutes was at large. 

 The province offered a thousand crowns for its head, the 

 Archbishop ordered prayers for public preservation, and 

 the commanding officer of the department scoured the 

 country with light cavalry. These measures failed, and 

 after a troop of the loth dragoons had pursued it for six 

 weeks through the mountainous parts of Languedoc, and 

 though it was seen several times, had failed to come up with 

 the animal, the reward was increased to ten thousand livres, 

 and Louis XV. offered six thousand more. High masses 

 innumerable were said, and cavalry, bands of game-keepers, 

 and gentlemen with their servants, sought the monster in 



