The Mas "Les Combres" in history
The ferocious beast or the beast of the Cévennes. (1812/1816)
The ferocious beast was a monster, possibly descended from the Beast of Gévaudan, which the emperor's wolf hunters were not bothered to pursue. Yet this beast certainly committed as many misdeeds as the other.
It spread terror throughout the mountainous region between Villefort and Les Vans during this period.
The villages affected by the beast's actions were Gravières, La Figère, Ste Marguerite-La-Figère, St Jean Chazorne, Planchamp, Villefort, St André-Cap-Cèze, Concoules, Ponteils, Bonneveaux, Malons, Naves, Brahic and Malbosc.
In Ponteils, a little girl from the Moulin farmstead was seized by the beast while accompanying her mother to the fountain. The next day, only her head and bloodstained clothes were found in a ravine.
In the same commune, in the Montselgues district, another child was attacked and dragged some distance away, but neighbours rushed to the scene and the child was saved.
The people of Ponteils recounted a terrible struggle that took place between their communal shepherd, named Rigal, and the beast that was carrying off the little boy who worked as his assistant. Both suffered horrible injuries and the child died.
In Aujac, a woman from the hamlet of Palveisset who was busy weeding her garden was devoured by my beast.
In Brahic, three children fell victim to him: a boy named Comte from the village of La Coste, a boy named Trial from the hamlet of Murjas, and a boy named Marey from the locality of Venissac.
In Banne, there were two survivors, one named Borie, who was rescued with great difficulty from the beast's claws, and the other named Napoléon Rieutord, who was dragged by it for 300 metres to the Renard rock. Rieutord clung to a pear tree until the beast gave up, leaving him with horrible scars.
The beast haunted the area around Sallefermouze. A farmer from this hamlet named Julien Ginier saw it three times, including the day it almost devoured Rieutord.
In Malbosc, the beast devoured a child in Gournier, in Les Rousses commune of St Paul, which was then part of Banne. A man named Jean Pellier suffered the same fate as Rieutord.
In Malons, a child from the village of Fayet was devoured, and on the same day another child in La Figère...
In Gravières, the beast seized and carried off a child before the eyes of women who were drawing water from the fountain. The women, in a panic, rushed after the monster, shouting and throwing stones at it. They rescued the child, which the animal dropped as it jumped over a wall. Two other children from Gravières were devoured in the village of Les Albourniers, one on 27 October 1812 and the other on 10 November 1816.
Hunts were organised to rid the region of this scourge. Every Sunday, mass was held early in the threatened parishes and immediately afterwards, the villagers, armed with rifles, sabres or pitchforks, led by the priest, set out to hunt the elusive beast. Abbé Meyrueitz, parish priest of Gravières, distinguished himself by his zeal and courage in these hunts. Many wolves were killed.
Old Ginier de Sallefermouze recounted that a huge wolf was killed at Mas des Combres below Malbosc by a man named Borne, and he believed it to be the ferocious beast.
The fact is that since then, no one has heard any more talk of it...
Excerpts from the story told by Maître Pellican, notary in Les Vans, transcribed in ‘Le Voyage dans le midi de l'Ardèche’ (Journey to the South of Ardèche) written by Albin Mazon in 1884.
