Note 121 — Chapter VII · Demons and Goblins.

Editor’s Note.—Then there is the “Rue de la Bête” at St. Andrew’s, on the borders of the Fief Rohais. Near this lane there was formerly a prison, so that it is probably full of associations of crime and malefactors. There is also a “Rue de la Bête” near L’Erée, between “Claire Mare” and the Rouvets, where, to this day, people will not go alone after dark, and they still tell the story (so wrote Miss Le Pelley, who lived in that neighbourhood), of a man, a M. Vaucourt, who, driving down that lane in the dark, the “Bête” got up into the cart, which so scared the unfortunate man that he died the next day. There was also a black dog which haunted the Forest Road, clanking its chains. The father of one old woman who told the story, saw and was followed by this beast one night when walking home from St. Martin’s to his house near the Forest Church. He was so frightened that he took to his bed and died of the shock very shortly afterwards. There is also “La Bête de la Rue Mase,” on the western limits of the Town parish, the “Coin de la Biche,” at St. Martin’s, between Saints’ and La Villette, and in the cross lane running from the “Carrefour David” to the “Profonds Camps,” past the house now called “St. Hilda,” a small white hare was supposed to be seen on stormy nights, accompanied by “Le Faeu Bélengier.”