It is a rather peculiar thing that, because there are no straight forward answers or no one has bothered carrying out research, you will find many wildlife mysteries in literature from the fringes -in this case from a UFO magazine of all things!
Unlike the magazine itself I went straight to the original source not that this helped much but I hope one day to at least have a very educated guess at what Ricochon's "monster" was
This is taken from Strange and Mysterious Beasts
Perhaps one of
the oddest cases I have on file was never fully investigated, that I am aware
of. The July / August, 1970 edition of the Flying Saucer Review (1) carried an
article by Jean-Claude Baillon, Secretary of Cercle d’Information des Phenomenes
Insolites (CIESPI) of
Above: La
Comtesse Dash in later life (c)2025 Hooper Archives
It had been a pitch-black, Moonless night and the caretaker, a M. Meingault, was in his kitchen when he had heard the three mares and two colts in the park galloping about. M. Maingault realized that something was obviously disturbing the horses and so went to check on them: he had only taken a few paces at the top of the chateau steps when the horses bolted past at full speed. Something had definitely scared the horses and, on looking around, M. Meingault saw, near a clump of bushes near the paddock fence, a pair of intensely bright, shining eyes. The caretaker then went back indoors.
M. Meingault decided that he needed to investigate and so armed himself with a gun before going outside and making a very difficult inspection around the chateau in darkness. He then saw the horses bolt through a thicket that they would normally avoid because of the risk of injury and then, for just a “few fleeting moments”, M. Meingault had the impression that “there was a shadow” pursuing the horses. What he did next seems very odd.
M. Meingault fired the gun a few times to see if it might scare of the “attacker” but, on seeing that the horses would not calm down…he went back indoors and to bed!
Above: a
shelter in the
It seems almost unbelievable that a caretaker believing that the horses were being chased by someone / some thing and seeing the glowing eyes, had gone indoors, armed himself. He had then inspected the area around the chateau in the dark, thought he saw something and fired shots at it. On seeing that the horses would not calm down he decided to go to bed. No alarm was raised. Horses were / are valuable animals and could have been injured or killed by something, some animal, but M. Meingault just went to bed.
M. Baillon’s sister confirmed that the horses were still disturbed next morning and that considerable damage had been done to the paddock fence –which was very solid in structure with thick posts and yet, it had been smashed in ten places. M. Baillon, like any good investigator –who should never be “off duty”- pressed M. Meingault to try to remember more. The eyes were about 3 feet (90 ms) above the ground and were like those of a tiger but very bright –as the caretaker had no torch, this was not reflected light. But darkness had prevented the man from seeing anything else. A dog was ruled out, which makes sense since a dog chasing tends to get excited and barks.
Could it have been a large, exotic felid? Say a panther or a puma?
Well, if there is one thing I have learnt over the last forty years it is that a puma will have no problem taking down a colt. If a panther or a puma were attacking the horses they would have signs of such an attack and I am guessing that there were no unusual tracks found.
As for it being someone trying to steal a colt or horse –this seems very unlikely. What type of person can chase and keep up with horses in full bolt?
Then M. Baillon,
quite by chance, came across an article in the local newspaper (2) dealing with
a local legend –“The Monster of the
“In former times
in the countryside of
“Around the year 1830, a gamekeeper of the forest Mouliere had been celebrating joyously and copiously one night with some friends after a particularly successful wolf-hunt.
“At about midnight, following upon this agreeable and ‘well irrigated’ evening session, the gamekeeper was returning in a gay mood to his home in the forest. The sky was sprinkled with stars and the cold was particularly sharp on that February night.
“Ricochon (for such was the name of our hero) had his loaded gun on his shoulder and as he strode along he was keeping an eye open for any noxious creature that might come within range of him. His temporary state of euphoria had not caused him to lose his inborn hunter’s sense.
“When he had reached a point not far from his little house in the forest, he suddenly heard a rushing sound of wings that seemed like the passage of a flight of bats. ‘Ha! Ha!’ quoth he to himself: ‘Its la chasse-galerie!’
“Emboldened by the good wine ingested in more than substantial quantity, he told himself that ‘Lucifer’s deer’ would make a good target and one that he would, when all was said and done, be happy to be able to contemplate at close quarters.
“Suddenly a dense black cloud blotted out the starlight and at the same moment a strange and deafening noise was heard. He raised his gun to his shoulder and fired at the dark mass. A fearful piercing cry rang out, and a shapeless and inert mass fell at his feet. Terrified, Ricochon dashed off home, slammed the door and shot the heavy bolt behind him.
“Never in his life had he known such fear. Completely sobered up by now, he had no illusions about the situation in which he found himself: he had just shot one of the Devil’s own creatures, and revenge would be terrible…Alone in the forest, without help, how could he escape from the danger? ‘Ah, mon dieu’, said he, ‘if I come through this night alright, I’ll go into town straight away tomorrow to get some holy water, a crucifix, and some statues of the Holy Virgin and of good Saint Radegonde…’
“The formulation of this firm intention restored some of his courage. He said some prayers, though still trembling at the least sound and expecting to see that Horrible monster, the Devil, appear before him.
“And thus, in anguish of soul, he awaited the dawn, not daring to venture forth before it, and hoping that when the moment arrived he would in fact be unable to find the creature he had shot.
“But when he had gone but a few steps from his house a shudder ran through him. For he now beheld the object of his terror, lying in a pool of blood.
“Recovering his composure finally, he told himself that the creature was after all well and truly dead. All the same he approached it gingerly and apprehensively, trembling in every limb. For surely indeed this must be the Beast of the Apocalypse!
“and now what was he to do with the Monster? It was indeed a big problem. Should he just bury it and tell nobody? But then, what a pity! His exploit deserved to be told…
“After musing at length upon the problem, he harnessed his horse to his biggest cart and tried to lift his unusual ’game’, to get it on the cart. The operation was a difficult one, but finally, with a little help from his imagination, he rigged up a sort of winch and completed the task.
“Then, this
arduous job completed, he covered the carcass with straw and set out for
“At first, the horse’s legs trembled so much that it could scarcely move, but after a few good strokes of the whip it began to gallop at full pelt as if trying to flee from some danger behind it
“At long last, Ricochon reached his goal, the police station. The Prefect de Police viewed the Monster, and forbade the gamekeeper to say a word about it to anybody. In a moment of half-confidence the gamekeeper subsequently declared however to someone that ‘his beast’ had a horrible human head, surmounted by enormous horns”.
Considering that “at certain times of the year” La chasse-galerie could be seen above the clouds it seems what is being described are periodic meteor showers. Remember that “rocks falling from the skies” was still a new idea. We should not look at this as being anything more “other worldly”.
When we come to the beast we are left puzzled. The “horrible human head” with horns may have been a later addition. We know that it made “a strange and deafening noise” but this is all we really know about it other than that it was big. A healthy gamekeeper should have had no trouble throwing a dead bird onto a cart but what type of bird we do not know –if it was a bird. We know that a dark mass blotted out the stars and Ricochon shot it, however, was this something flying or something leaping from a tree?
The largest living
bird, the Eurasian black vulture (Aegypius
monachus) can reach a maximum length of 3.9 inches (1.2 m) with a wingspan
of 10 feet (3 m) and weighing in at 31 lbs (14 kg). The Western limits of its range are thought
to be
Was this a mammal
–a quadruped – that the gamekeeper shot? Reading the account, it seems that the
horse may not have found the load it was meant to tow too heavy but, possibly,
terrifying. Was it perhaps a
predator? Horses do react to living or
dead predators they come across. Would a
big bird scare it? Once whipped, the
horse towed cart, Ricochon and the “Monster” at full pelt to
It is interesting
that the “Monster” obviously never was kept secret since there was a saying in
At this period, and a long time before, the French were know for their scientific curiosity and cataloguing so what did the Prefect de Police do with the Monster? Presumably his superiors would send someone to look at the creature and that person would more likely be a naturalist or biologist. In that case, as is still the case today (though cameras have become tool), a sketch or drawing would have been made and that might –might- be the only way of finding out what was shot.
A local museum archives?
In a local library or,
perhaps, even the
If anyone in
(1) Eerie Night At The Chateau des Martins, Baillon,
Jean-Claude, Flying Saucer
Review, Vol. 16, no. 4, July / August, 1970, pp. 24-26
(2) Centre-Presse 22nd August, 1969
(3) Memoires
Des Autres Par La Comtesse Dash -Souvenirs Anecdotiques sur Le
Premier Empire Et Les Cent Jours, Saint-Mars, Gabrielle Anne Cisterne de
Courtiras, Vicomtesse de, A La Librairie Illustree (Paris), 1896: pp. 267-271
http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/mysterious-strange-beasts/paperback/product-23771024.html
Below cover for smaller format version
This book covers a number of French mystery beasts including The Beast of Gevaudan which has been called the most "extensive examination of the incidents in English or French" (24pp in total.
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