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007 - Chapter VII JEAN GRENIER · Book of Werewolves

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of the Book of Werewolves. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by John Fricker, The Book of Werewolves by Sabina
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  Speaker 1: bearing Gold. Chapter seven, Jean Grenier on the sand dunes,
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  Speaker 1: A wolf attacks Marguerite Poirier. Jean Grenier brought to trial
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  Speaker 1: his confessions. Charges of cannibalism proved his sentence behavior in
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  Speaker 1: the monastery visit of de Lancre. One fine afternoon in
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  Speaker 1: the spring, some village girls were tending to their sheep
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  Speaker 1: on the sand dunes, which intervene between the vast forests
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  Speaker 1: of pine covering the greater portion of the present department
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  Speaker 1: of land in the south of France and the sea.
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  Speaker 1: The brightness of the sky, the freshness of the air
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  Speaker 1: puffing up the blue, twinkling Bay of Biscay, The harmble
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  Speaker 1: song of the wind as it made rich music among
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  Speaker 1: the pines, which stood like a green, uplifted wave on
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  Speaker 1: the east. The beauty of the sand hills, speckled with
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  Speaker 1: golden cistus or patched with Grentian blue by the low
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  Speaker 1: growing Gremille crouchet. The charm of the forest's skirts tinted
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  Speaker 1: variously with the foliage of cork trees, pines, and acacia,
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  Speaker 1: the latter in full bloom, a pile of rose colored
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  Speaker 1: or snowy flowers. All conspired to fill the peasant maidens
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  Speaker 1: with joy and to make their voices rise in song
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  Speaker 1: and laughter, which rung merrily over the hills and through
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  Speaker 1: the dark avenues of evergreen trees. Now a gorgeous butterfly
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  Speaker 1: attracted their attention. Then a flight of quails skimming the surface. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed Jacqueline Olson. Ah. If I had my stilts and bats,
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  Speaker 1: I would strike the little birds down, and we should
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  Speaker 1: have a fine supper. Now if they would fly ready
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  Speaker 1: cooks into one's mouth, as they do in foreign parts,
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  Speaker 1: said another girl. Have you got any new clothes for
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  Speaker 1: the saint? John, asked a third. My mother has laid
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  Speaker 1: by to purchase me a smart cap with gold lace.
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  Speaker 1: You will turn the head of Etty and all together
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  Speaker 1: in it, said Jean Gaboriant. But what is the matter
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  Speaker 1: with the sheep, she asked, because the sheep, which had
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  Speaker 1: been quietly browsing before her, on reaching a small depression
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  Speaker 1: in the june had started away, as though frightened at something.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, one of the dogs began to
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  Speaker 1: growl and show his fangs. The girls ran to the
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  Speaker 1: spot and saw a little fall in the ground, in
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  Speaker 1: which seated on a log of fir was a boy
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  Speaker 1: of thirteen. The appearance of the lad was peculiar. His
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  Speaker 1: hair was of a tawny red and thickly matted, falling
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  Speaker 1: over his shoulders and completely covering his narrow brow. His small,
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  Speaker 1: pale gray eyes twinkled with an expression of horrible ferocity
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  Speaker 1: and cunning, and deep sunken hollows. The complexion was of
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  Speaker 1: a dark olive color. The teeth were strong and white,
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  Speaker 1: and the canine teeth protruded over the lower lip when
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  Speaker 1: the mouth was closed. The boy's hands were large and powerful,
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  Speaker 1: the nails black and pointed like birds talons. He was
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  Speaker 1: ill clothed and seemed to be in the most abject poverty.
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  Speaker 1: The few garments he had on him were in tatters,
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  Speaker 1: and through the rents, the emaciation of his limbs was
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  Speaker 1: plainly visible. The girl stood round him, half frightened and
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  Speaker 1: much surprised, but the boy showed no symptoms of astonishment.
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  Speaker 1: His face relaxed into a ghastly leer, which showed the
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  Speaker 1: whole range of his glittering white fangs. Well, my maidens,
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  Speaker 1: said he in a harsh voice, Which of you is
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  Speaker 1: the prettiest? I should like to know? Can you decide?
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  Speaker 1: Among you? What do you want to know? For? Asked
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  Speaker 1: Jana Boriant to the eldest of the girls, aged eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: who took upon herself to be spokesman for the rest.
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  Speaker 1: Because I shall marry the prettiest, was the answer. Huh,
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  Speaker 1: said Jean jokingly. That is if she will have you,
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  Speaker 1: which is not very likely, as we none of us
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  Speaker 1: know you or anything about you. I am the son
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  Speaker 1: of a priest, replied the boy curtly. Is that why
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  Speaker 1: you look so dingy and black? No? I am dark
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  Speaker 1: colored because I wear a wolf skin. Sometimes a wolf's skin,
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  Speaker 1: echoed the girls, and pray who gave it you? One
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  Speaker 1: called Pierre Laborante. There is no man of that name hereabouts?
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  Speaker 1: Where does he live? A scream of laughter, mingled with
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  Speaker 1: howls and breaking into the strange, gulping bursts of fiendlike
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  Speaker 1: merriment from the strange boy. The little girls recoiled and
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  Speaker 1: the youngest took refuge behind Jeanne. Do you want to
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  Speaker 1: know Pierre labor and place? Hey, He is a man
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  Speaker 1: with an iron chain about his neck, which he is
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  Speaker 1: ever engaged in gnawing. Do you want to know where
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  Speaker 1: he lives? Last? A place of gloom and a fire,
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  Speaker 1: where there are many companions, some seated on iron chairs,
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  Speaker 1: burning burning, others stretched on glowing beds, burning too. Some
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  Speaker 1: cast men upon blazing coals, Others roast men before fierce flames.
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  Speaker 1: Others again plunge them into cauldrons of liquid fire. The
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  Speaker 1: girls trembled and looked at each other with scared faces,
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  Speaker 1: and then again at the hideous being which crouched before them.
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  Speaker 1: You want to know about the wolfskin? Cape continued He
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  Speaker 1: Pierre Laborant gave me that he wraps it round me
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  Speaker 1: and every Monday, Friday and Sunday, and for about an
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  Speaker 1: hour at dusk every other day. I am a wolf,
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  Speaker 1: aware wolf. I have killed dogs and drunk their blood,
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  Speaker 1: But little girls taste better. Their flesh is tender and sweet,
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  Speaker 1: their blood rich and warm. I have eaten many a maiden,
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  Speaker 1: as I have been on my raids together with my
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  Speaker 1: nine companions. I am aware wolf. Ah if the sun
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  Speaker 1: were to set, I would soon fall on one of
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  Speaker 1: you and make a meal of you. Again, he burst
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  Speaker 1: into one of his frightful paroxysms of laughter, and the girls,
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  Speaker 1: unable to endure it any longer, fled with precipitation. Near
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  Speaker 1: the village of Saint Antoine de Pisan, a little girl
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  Speaker 1: of the name of Marguerite Poirier, thirteen years old, was
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  Speaker 1: in the habit of tending her sheep in company with
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  Speaker 1: the lad of the same age, whose name was Jean Crenier,
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  Speaker 1: the same lad whom Jean Gaboyant had questioned. The little
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  Speaker 1: girl often complained to her parents of the conduct of
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  Speaker 1: the boy. She said that he frightened her with his
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  Speaker 1: horrible stories, but her father and mother thought little of
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  Speaker 1: her complaints till one day she returned home before her
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  Speaker 1: usual time, so thoroughly alarmed that she had deserted her flock.
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  Speaker 1: Her parents now took the matter up and investigated it.
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  Speaker 1: Her story was as follows. Jean had often told her
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  Speaker 1: that he had sold himself to the devil, and that
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  Speaker 1: he had acquired the power of ranging the country after
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  Speaker 1: dusk and sometimes in broad day, in the form of
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  Speaker 1: a wolf. He had assured her that he had killed
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  Speaker 1: and devoured many dogs, but that he found their flesh
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  Speaker 1: less palatable than the flesh of little girls, which he
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  Speaker 1: regarded as a supreme delicacy. He had told her that
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  Speaker 1: this had been tasted by him not unfrequently, but he
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  Speaker 1: had specified only two instances. In one, he had eaten
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  Speaker 1: as much as he could and had thrown the rest
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  Speaker 1: to a wolf which had come up during the repast.
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  Speaker 1: In the other instance, he had bitten to death another
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  Speaker 1: little girl, had lapped her blood, and, being in a
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  Speaker 1: famished condition at the time, had devoured every portion of her,
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  Speaker 1: with the exception of the arms and shoulders. The child
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  Speaker 1: told her parents, on the occasion of her return home
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  Speaker 1: in a fit of terror, that she had been guiding
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  Speaker 1: her sheep as usual, but Graniere had not been present.
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  Speaker 1: Hearing a rustle in the bushes, she had looked round,
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  Speaker 1: and a wild beast had leaped upon her and torn
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  Speaker 1: her clothes on her left side with its sharp fangs.
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  Speaker 1: She added that she had defended herself lustily with her
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  Speaker 1: shepherds staff and had beaten the creature off. It had
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  Speaker 1: then retreated a few paces had seated itself on its
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  Speaker 1: hind legs like a dog when it is begging, and
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  Speaker 1: had regarded her with such a look of rage that
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  Speaker 1: she had fled in terror. She described the animal as
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  Speaker 1: resembling a wolf, but as being shorter and stouter. Its
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  Speaker 1: hair was red, its tail stumpy, and the head smaller
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  Speaker 1: than that of a genuine wolf. The statement of the
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  Speaker 1: child produced general consternation in the parish. It was well
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  Speaker 1: known that several little girls had vanished in a most
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  Speaker 1: mysterious way of late, and the parents of these little
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  Speaker 1: ones were thrown into an agony of terror lest their
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  Speaker 1: children had become the prey of the wretched boy accused
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  Speaker 1: by Marguerite Poirier. The case was now taken up by
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  Speaker 1: the authorities and brought before the Parliament of Bordeaux. The
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  Speaker 1: investigation which followed was as complete as could be desired.
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  Speaker 1: Jean Grenier was the son of a poor laborer in
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  Speaker 1: the village of Saint Antoine's Appeasal, and not the son
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  Speaker 1: of a priest, as he had asserted. Three months before
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  Speaker 1: his seizure, he had left home and had been with
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  Speaker 1: several masters, doing odd work or wandering about the country begging.
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  Speaker 1: He had been engaged several times to take charge of
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  Speaker 1: the flocks belonging to farmers, and had as often been
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  Speaker 1: discharged for the neglect of his duties. The lad exhibited
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  Speaker 1: no reluctance to communicate all he knew about himself, and
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  Speaker 1: his statements were tested one by one and were often
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  Speaker 1: proved to be correct. The story he related to himself
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  Speaker 1: before the court was as follows. When I was ten
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  Speaker 1: or eleven years old, my neighbour Duthilaire introduced me in
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  Speaker 1: the depths of the forest to a monsieur de la forest,
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  Speaker 1: a black man, who signed me with his nail, and
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  Speaker 1: they gave to me and Duthilier a salve and wolf skin.
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  Speaker 1: From that time have I run about the country as
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  Speaker 1: a wolf. The charge of Marguerite Poirier is correct. My
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  Speaker 1: intention was to have killed and devoured hair, but she
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  Speaker 1: kept me off with a stick. I have only killed
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  Speaker 1: one dog, a white one, and I did not drink
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  Speaker 1: its blood. When questioned touching the children whom he said
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  Speaker 1: he had killed and eaten as a wolf, he allowed
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  Speaker 1: that he had once entered an empty house on the
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  Speaker 1: way between Saint Cutras and Saint Annelay, in a small
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  Speaker 1: village the name of which he did not remember, and
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  Speaker 1: had found a child asleep in its cradle, and as
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  Speaker 1: no one was within to hinder him, he dragged the
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  Speaker 1: baby out of its cradle, carried it into the garden,
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  Speaker 1: leaped the hedge, and devoured as much of it as
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  Speaker 1: satisfied his hunger. What remained he had given to a wolf.
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  Speaker 1: In the parish of Saint Antoine de Pisan, he had
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  Speaker 1: attacked a little girl as she was keeping sheep. She
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  Speaker 1: was dressed in a black frock. He did not know
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  Speaker 1: her name. He tore her with his nails and teeth
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  Speaker 1: and ate her. Six weeks before his capture, he had
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  Speaker 1: fallen upon another child near the stone bridge in the
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  Speaker 1: same parish. In Eparon, he had assaulted the hound of
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  Speaker 1: a certain Monsieur Milon, and would have killed the beast
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  Speaker 1: had not the owner come out with his rapier in
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  Speaker 1: his hand. Jean said that he had the wolf skin
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  Speaker 1: in his possession, and that he went out hunting for
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  Speaker 1: children at the command of his master, the Lord of
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  Speaker 1: the forest. Before transformation. He smeared himself with the salve,
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  Speaker 1: which he preserved in a small pot, and hid his
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  Speaker 1: clothes in the thicket. He usually ran his courses from
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  Speaker 1: one to two hours in the day when the moon
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  Speaker 1: was at the way, but very often he made his
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  Speaker 1: expeditions at night. On one occasion he had accompanied Touthillaire,
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  Speaker 1: but they had killed no one. He accused his father
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  Speaker 1: of having assisted him and of possessing a wolf skin.
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  Speaker 1: He charged him also with having accompanied him on one
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  Speaker 1: occasion when he attacked and ate a girl in the
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  Speaker 1: village of Gryland, whom he had found tending a flock
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  Speaker 1: of geese. He said that his stepmother was separated from
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  Speaker 1: his father, who believed the reason to be because she
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  Speaker 1: had seen him once vomit the paws of a dog
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  Speaker 1: and the fingers of a child. He added that the
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  Speaker 1: lord of the forest had strictly forbidden him to bite
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  Speaker 1: the thumb nail of his left hand, which nail was
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  Speaker 1: thicker and longer than the others, and had warned him
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  Speaker 1: never to lose sight of it as long as he
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  Speaker 1: was in his werewolf disguise. Douthillaire was apprehended, and the
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  Speaker 1: father of Jean Grenier himself claimed to be heard by examination.
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  Speaker 1: The account given by the father and stepmother of Jean
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  Speaker 1: coincided in many particulars with the statements made by their son.
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  Speaker 1: The localities where Granier declared he had fallen on children
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  Speaker 1: were identified. The times when he said the deeds had
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  Speaker 1: been done accorded with the dates given by the parents
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  Speaker 1: of the missing little ones when their losses had occurred.
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  Speaker 1: The wounds which s Jorn affirmed that he had made,
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  Speaker 1: and the manner in which he had dealt them coincided
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  Speaker 1: with the descriptions given by the children he had assaulted.
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  Speaker 1: He was confronted with Margaret Poirier and had singled her
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  Speaker 1: out from among five other girls. Pointed to the still
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  Speaker 1: open gashes in her body and stated that he had
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  Speaker 1: made them with his teeth when he attacked her in Wolfful,
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  Speaker 1: and she had beaten him off with a stick. He
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  Speaker 1: described an attack he had made on a little boy
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  Speaker 1: whom he would have slain had not a man come
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  Speaker 1: to the rescue, and exclaimed, I'll have you presently. The
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  Speaker 1: man who had saved the child was found and proved
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  Speaker 1: to be the uncle of the rescued lad and he
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  Speaker 1: corroborated the statement of Grenier that he had used the
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  Speaker 1: words mentioned above. Jean was then confronted with his father.
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  Speaker 1: He now began to falter in his story and to
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  Speaker 1: change his statements. The examination had lasted long, and it
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  Speaker 1: was seen that the feeble intellect of the boy was
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  Speaker 1: wearied out, so the case was adjourned. When next confronted
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  Speaker 1: with the elder Grenier, Jean told his story as at first,
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  Speaker 1: without changing it in any important particular. The fact of
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  Speaker 1: Jean Grenier having killed and eaten several children, and of
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  Speaker 1: his having attacked and wounded others with intent to take
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  Speaker 1: their life, were fully established, But there was no proof
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  Speaker 1: whatever of the father having had the least hand in
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  Speaker 1: any of the murders, so that he was dismissed to
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  Speaker 1: the court without a shadow of guilt upon him. The
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  Speaker 1: only witness who corroborated the assertion of Jean that he
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  Speaker 1: had changed his shape into that of Wolfe was Margarete's poier.
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  Speaker 1: Before the court gave judgment, the first president of a size,
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  Speaker 1: in an eloquent speech, put on one side all questions
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  Speaker 1: of witchcraft and diabolical compact and bestial transformation, and boldly
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  Speaker 1: stated that the court had only to consider the age
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  Speaker 1: and the imbecility of the child, who was so dull
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  Speaker 1: and idiotic that children of seven or eight years old
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  Speaker 1: have usually a larger amount of reason than he. The
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  Speaker 1: President went on to say that lycanthropy and chanthropy were
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  Speaker 1: mere hallucinations, and that the change of shape existed only
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  Speaker 1: in the disorganized brain of the insane. Consequently, it was
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  Speaker 1: not a crime which could be punished. The tender age
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  Speaker 1: of the boy must be taken into consideration, and the
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  Speaker 1: utter neglect of his education and moral development. The court
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  Speaker 1: sentence Grenare to perpetual imprisonment within the walls of a
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  Speaker 1: monastery at Bordeaux, where he might be instructed in his
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  Speaker 1: Christian and moral obligations, but any attempt to escape would
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  Speaker 1: be punished with death. A pleasant companion for the monks,
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  Speaker 1: a promising pupil for them to instruct. No sooner was
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  Speaker 1: he admitted into the precincts of the religious house than
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  Speaker 1: he ran frantically about the cloister and gardens upon all fours, and,
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  Speaker 1: finding a heap of bloody and raw offal, fell upon
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  Speaker 1: it and devoured it in an incredibly short space of time.
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  Speaker 1: Deloncre visited him seven years after and found him diminutive
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  Speaker 1: in stature, very shy, and unwilling to look any one
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  Speaker 1: in the face. His eyes were deep set and restless,
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  Speaker 1: his teeth long and protruding his nails black and in
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  Speaker 1: places worn away. His mind was completely barren. He seemed
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  Speaker 1: unable to comprehend the smallest things. He related his story
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  Speaker 1: to Deloncre and told him how he had run about
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  Speaker 1: formerly in the woods as a wolf, and he said
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  Speaker 1: that he still felt a craving for all flesh, especially
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  Speaker 1: for that of little girls, which he said was delicious.
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  Speaker 1: And he added that, but for his confinement, it would
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  Speaker 1: not be long before he tasted it again. He said
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  Speaker 1: that the Lord of the forest had visited him twice
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  Speaker 1: in the prison, but that he had driven him off
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  Speaker 1: with the sign of the cross. The account he then
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  Speaker 1: gave of his murders coincided exactly with what had come
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  Speaker 1: out in his trial, and beside this, his story of
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  Speaker 1: the compact he had made with the Black One and
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  Speaker 1: the manner in which his transformation was effected also coincided
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  Speaker 1: with his former statements. He died at the age of
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  Speaker 1: twenty after an imprisonment of seven years, shortly after Delancre's visit.
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  Speaker 1: In the two cases of Roulais and Grenier, the courts
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  Speaker 1: referred to the whole matter of lycanthropy or animal transfervation
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  Speaker 1: to its true and legitimate cause an aberration of the brain.
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  Speaker 1: From this time, medical men seemed to have regarded it
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  Speaker 1: as a form of mental malady to be brought under
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  Speaker 1: their treatment, rather than as a crime to be punished
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  Speaker 1: by law. But it is very fearful to contemplate that
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  Speaker 1: there may still exist persons in the world filled with
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  Speaker 1: a morbid craving for human blood, which is ready to
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  Speaker 1: impel them to commit the most horrible atrocities should they
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  Speaker 1: escape the vigilance of their guards or break the bars
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  Speaker 1: of the madhouse which restrains them. End of Chapter seven,
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  Speaker 1: recording by John Fricker