The dark legend of the Beast of Gévaudan, the monster that turned the French fields into their hunting preserve

In the depth of French forestswhere the fog clings to the trees and the silence only breaks with the crunch of branches under the weight of something that is not seen, something stalked. It was not the common fear of wolves or distrust of strangers. It was another kind of fearone that crawled from the shadow and settled on the skin, bristling every hair of the neck.

That terror I had a name, although nobody knew exactly what it was. And while the stories spread from village in village, a certainty was imposed on all others: Something was killing. And he did it with a brutality that challenged any explanation.

He first body appeared in June 1764, in the village of the village Hubacs. It was Jeanne Bouletfourteen, who had been attacked with such ferocity that his body was unrecognizable. What at first seemed an isolated event soon became a Routine macabra. A blood trash began to extend through the region of They have beenplunging its inhabitants into a permanent alarm. The rumors grew at the same speed as the number of victims: some spoke of a gigantic wolfothers claimed that It wasn’t a known animal.

The king intervened to restore order

The deaths continued in the following months, bailed in their majority with young children and women that grazed in the fields. Something attacked without prior notice, with surgical precision, and then disappeared without a trace. The description of the survivors coincided in certain details: a bigger creature than a wolfreddish fur and a dark line traveling its back. But there was something more disturbing. Some witnesses claimed that It stood on their hind legsthat its cunning seemed almost human.

Fear extended beyond small peoples and reached Paris. He King Louis XVpressed by the growing hysteria and inability of local hunters to stop the attacks, sent their own arcabucero, François Antoinewith a clear order: hunt the beast and restore calm. In September 1765, Antoine and his group failed a wolf of considerable proportions in the vicinity of the abbey of Chazes. His corpse was exhibited in Versailles as proof of the success of the mission. The threat was over. Or at least, they believed.

Because the Deaths did not stop. During all 1766, the attacks continued, although with a different pattern. The beast – or whatever – appeared act more cautiousavoiding exposure and attacking at unexpected moments. Despair led the population to consider increasingly crazy explanations: a Divine punishmenta be supernaturaleven the work of A murderer who used an animal trained To carry out their crimes.

The mysterious silver bullet

In June 1767, Jean Chastera local hunter, became the unexpected protagonist of the story. As they count, he waited patiently in the forest, praying with his missal in his hand. When the beast appeared, he shot him without hesitation. That bullet was said, had been molded with silver. The animal fell. His remains were analyzed and described as those of a large wolf, although they did not fit at all with the previous stories.

From that moment, casually, the attacks ceased. The Beast of Gévaudan He disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived, leaving behind more than a hundred deaths and endless unanswered questions. Over the years, hypotheses emerged: Had it really been a wolf? A lion escaped from a collection of exotic beasts? Or something much darker, maybe a Lincantropro?

There was never an absolute truth, but its history became a legend. And in the forests of Gévaudan, where the fog continues to wrapping the trees and the silence persists, some say that, from time to time, on the most closed nights, their steps are still heard.