field long before the d'Ennevals packed for Normandy. On 6 July he and his party arrived in Broussolles, where a cowherd had been slain by the Beast two days before. Antoine discovered two sets of tracks at the site of the latest attack, that of a large male wolf and a she-wolf, which he suspected to be the Beast's mate. If the Beast had in fact reproduced, Antoine surmised, the she-wolf and whelps would have to be destroyed as well. His first formal hunt occurred on 11 July, but yielded nothing, and activity among the huntsmen was sporadic for the remainder of the month due to heavy rains, with large-scale hunts on 24 and 28 July. The Beast, however, continued to assail the Gévaudanais irrespective of the weather. Several local government officials were soon the recipients of a communique from Antoine titled Observations, including Louis Phélypeaux, Count de Saint-Florentin and Ministre d'État; M. Marie-Joseph-Emmanuel de Guignard de Saint-Priest, intendant of the Languedoc; and Jean-Bapstiste de Morin, Count de Moncan, the provincial commander who had originally assigned Duhamel to the hunt. His correspondence highlighted the extreme severity of the terrain in the Gévaudan, which Antoine found more difficult than that of any region he had hunted in the last fifty years, including all of France, and locales in Germany, Piedmont, and the Pyrenees. He also requested a dozen sergeants to organize the peasants who served as beaters during the large hunts, and pleaded for a detachment of hounds and coursers to replace the dogs of his own pack, which were faring none too well. The Duke of Penthiévre, who had already donated three of his personal huntsmen to Antoine's cause, was among the nobility to which Antoine sent his requests. On 11 August, Marie-Jeanne Valet and her younger sister were attacked while fording a tributary of the River Desges, on the road from Paulhac-en-Margeride to Broussous. Valet successfully defended herself and her sister with a bayonet mounted at the end of a staff, wounding the Beast, which threw itself into the river and thrashed about madly before escaping. Antoine and company quickly made their way to Paulhac when they heard of this event, praising Marie-Jeanne for her bravery. The Royal Gunbearer compared her favourably to Joan of Arc, calling her the "Maid of the Gévaudan." Unconvinced that the Beast had been wounded to the death, however, he remained in the field.