Brotherhood of the Wolf

How would a hunter end la Bete's killing spree? Several methods, all unsuccessful, were tried:

• Deep pits, concealed so the unwary animal would fall in, were used to catch wolves. To keep la Bete in the pit, her hunters dug them especially deep so she could not jump out. They needn't have worried. She never fell in.


• Poison, spread chiefly by a man named Mercier, killed more domestic animals than anyone anticipated. But la Bete also escaped this effort to end her life (although the attacks lessened, and then stopped, for a time). The poison approach was finally ended when too many other animals fared less well than the Beast of Gevaudan.


• Traps, ambushes, decoys and other similar devices were completely ineffective to lure the mysterious creature.

Like the King's hunter before him, Chastel wanted to claim a reward from Louis XV for killing la Bete. Unfortunately, the creature began to deteriorate so badly that Chastel was forced to bury most of it in the forest of Versailles - before he could commence his royal "show and tell." He was ultimately paid around 72 pounds.

While the story of la Bete du Gevaudan is little known outside France, her legend may continue in a popular children's fairy tale. Remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood? The child observes:

Grandmother! What big teeth you have!