June 1767

Early spring in the  land of the Beast.

Tradition holds that, in the face of these new predations, the terror-fraught peasantry came together for support at community gatherings and pilgrimages to sacred sites of the Virgin Mary: Nôtre-Dame d’Estours near Saugues, and Nôtre-Dame Beaulieu, “lovely place,” near Paulhac. Throngs of Gévaudanais came out, praying for deliverance from the latest onslaught.

Pilgrim Jean Chastel famously had his blunderbuss (from the Dutch for "thunder-box")—a short-range gun loaded with shot, slugs, nails, etc., to cover a wide area—and his ammunition—cast from “leaden medals of the Virgin of the type affixed to the brim of one’s hat”—blessed by the priest.
 
Many historians say such pilgrimages would have been unlikely in May and June as it would have been in the midst of the busy spring agricultural season. However, scholar  Judith Devlin says it was common for country people to embark on pilgrimages, in which they followed time-honored rituals appropriate to each sacred site, be it church or fountain. These pilgrimages were not made for spiritual salvation, but rather to bring about solutions to various real-life problems, from finding husbands to keeping livestock safe from wolves.

From June 1 through June 17, there were yet more attacks, perhaps half a dozen. Nine-year-old Catherine Chautard of Le Malzieu was killed on June 12. On June 18, Jeanne Bastide of Desges, nineteen years old, perished . . . the last victim of the Beast.

The wave of new attacks compelled the marquis d’Apcher to continued action.