by a Bacchant fury or Lymphatick motion but by Astronomical affections Soli numine Divino afflati praesagiunt Spiritu Prophetico particularia Although I have often foretold long before what hath afterwards come to pass and in particular Regions acknowledging all to have been done by Divine Vertue and Inspiration being willing to hold my peace by reason of the injury not onely of the present time but also of the future and to put them in Writing because the Kingdoms Sects and Regions shall be so Diametrically opposed that if I should relate what shall happen hereafter those of the present Reign Sect Religion and Faith would find it so disagreeing with their fances that they would condemn that which future Ages shall find and know to be true considering also the saying of our Saviour Nalite Sanctum dare canibus ne conculcent pedibus conversi discumpant vos which hath been the cause that I have withdrawn my tongue from the Vulgar and my Pen from Paper But afterwards I was willing for the common good to enlarge my self in dark and abstruse Sentences declaring the future Events chiefly the most urgent and those which I foresaw what ever humane mutation happened would not offend the hearers all under dark figures more then Prophetical for although Abscondisti haec a sapentibus prudentibus i. e. potentibus Regibus enucleasti ea exiguis tenuibus and the Prophets by means onely of the immortal God and good Angels have received the Spirit of Vaticination by which they foresee things and foretel future events for nothing is perfect without him whose power and goodness is so great to his Creatures that though they are but men nevertheless by the likeness of our good Genius to the Angels this heat and Prophetical power draws near us as it happens by the Beams of the Sun which cast their influence both on Elementary and not Elementary bodies as for us who are men we cannot attain any thing by our natural knowledge of the secrets of God our Creator Quia non est nostrum nosse tempora nec momenta c. Besides although there is or may come some persons to whom God Almighty will reveal by impressions made on his understanding some secrets of the future according to the Judicial Astrology as it hath happened in former times that a certain power and voluntary faculty possessed them as a flame of fire so that by his inspiration they were able to judge of Divine and Humane things for the Divine works that are absolutely necessary God will end But my son I speak to thee too obscurely but as for the secrets that are received by the subtle Spirit of fire by which the understanding being moved doth contemplate the highest Celestial Bodies as being active and vigilant to the very pronunciation without fear or any shameful loquacity all which proceeded from the Divine Power of the Eternal God from whom all goodness floweth Now my son although I have inserted the name of Prophet here I will not attribute to my self so sublime a Title for qui Propheta dicitur bodie olim vocabatur videns and Prophets are those properly my Son that see things remote from the natural knowledge of Men but put the case the Prophets by the means of the perfect light of Prophecy may see as well Divine things as Humane which cannot be seeing the effects of future predictions do extend a great way for the secrets of God are incomprehensible and the efficient power moveth afar off the natural knowledge taking their beginning at the free will cause those things to appear which otherwise could not be known neither by humane auguries or any hidden knowledge or secret virtue under Heaven but only by the means of some indivisible Eternal being or Comitial and Herculean agitation the causes come to be known by the Coelestial motion I say not therefore my Son that you may not understand me well because the knowledge of this matter cannot yet be imprinted in thy weak brain but that future causes afar off are subject to the knowledge of humane Creatures if notwithstanding the Creature things present and future were neither obscure nor hidden from the intellectual seal but the perfect knowledge of the cause of things cannot be acquired without the Divine Inspiration seeing that all Prophetical Inspiration received hath its original principle from God the Creator next from good Luck and afterwards from Nature therefore cases indifferently produced or not produced the Prophecy partly happens where it hath been foretold for the understanding being intellectually created cannot see occult things unless it be by the voice coming from the Lymbo by the means of the thin flame to which the knowledge of future causes is inclined and also my Son I intreat thee not to bestow thy understanding on such fopperies which drie up the Body and damn the Soul bringing vexation to the Senses chiefly abhor the vanity of the execrable Magick forbidden by the Sacred Scriptures and by the Canons of the Church in the first of which is excepted Judicial Astrology by which and by the means of Divine Inspiration with continual supputations we have put in writing our Prophecies And although this occult Philosophy was not forbidden I could never be persuaded to meddle with it although many Volums concerning that Art which hath been concealed a great while were presented to me but fearing what might happen after I had read them I presented them to Vulcan who while he was a devouring them the flame mixing with the Air made an unwonted light more bright then the usual flame and as if it had been a Lightning shining all the house over as if it had been all in a flame therefore that henceforth you might not be abused in the search of the perfect Transformation as much selene as folar and to seek in the waters uncorruptible mettal I have burnt them all to ashes but as to the judgement which cometh to be perfected by the help of the Coelestial Judgement I will manifest to you that you may have knowledge of future things rejecting the fantastical imaginations that should happen by the limiting the particularity of Places by Divine inspiration supernatural according to the Coelestial figures the places and a part of the time by an occult property and by a Divine virtue power and faculty in the presence of which the three times are comprehended by Eternity revolution being tyed to the cause that is past present and future Quia omnia sunt Nuda aperta c. therefore my Son thou mayst not withstanding thy tender brain comprehend things that shall happen hereafter and may be foretold by coelestial natural lights and by the Spirit of Prophecy not that I will attribute to my self the name of a Prophet but as a mortal man being no farther from Heaven by my sence then I am from Earth by my Feet possum errare falli decipi I am the greatest Sinner of the World
was found and carried Prisoner to the Duke of Savoy who received him very honorably according to his valour and deserts Observe that the word Saignes here signifieth in old Proven al a Marish XX. French Tours Orleans Blois Anger 's Renes Nantes Cités vexée par soudain changement Par Langues estranges seront tendues Tentes Fleuves Darts Rennes Terre Mer tremblement English Tours Orleans Blois Anger 's Renes and Nantes Cities vexed by a sudden change By strange Languages Tents shall be set up Rivers Darts Rennes Land and Sea shall quake ANNOT. All the Cities mentioned in the first Verseare seated by the River of Loire and are threatned here of a sudden change and that some strangers shall set up their Tents against them and chiefly at Rennes there shall be an Earth-quake felt both by Sea and Land XXI French Profonde argile blanche nourrit rocher Qui d'un abysme istra l'acticineuse En vain troublez ne l'oseront toucher Ignorant estre au fond terre argileuse English A deep white clay feedeth a Rock Which clay shall break out of the deep like milk In vain people shall be troubled not daring to touch it Being ignorant that in the bottom there is a milky clay ANNOT. It is a Rock in the middle of the Sea whose Roots are fed by a white clay which is at the foot of this Rock in the bottom of the Sea and therefore called deep This clay being softned and dissolved by the Sea-water shall appear upon the superficies of it like milk about the Rock Those that shall see this wonder being ignorant that in the bottom there is a milky clay shall in vain be troubled at it and shall not dare to touch it XXII French Ce qui vivra n'aura aucun sens Viendra le Fer a mort son artifice Autun Chalons Langres les deux Sens La Guerre la Glasse fera grand malefice English That which shall live and shall have no sence The Lion shall destroy the art of it Autun Chalons Langres and both Sens The War and the Ice shall do great harm ANNOT. This is a great Riddle which was never found out till now and had I not been born in the Countrey where the History did happen it might have been unknown to this day and buried in oblivion In the year of the Lord 1613. which was that of my Birth There was in the Town of Sens a Taylors Wife named Columba Chatry who presently after her marriage conceived and for the space of 28. years persuaded her self to be with Child had all the signs of it in the beginning of her impregnation and having The Histâ—â—â— of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ— pâ—trified child gone her compleat time she begun to feel the pains of a woman in Labour with great gripings in the Guts The Urine was suppressed for a while but at last it broke out with a strong current This quantity of water not coming so much out of the Bladder as was supposed as from the womb by the breaking of the Membrane called Amnion seeing that with those serous excrements she avoided some conjealed blood After that her breast begun to fall and the Child had little or no motion her pains being less than they were which caused no small admiration to the Midwifes who expected a safe deliverance For the space of three years after this woman kept her Bed and was brought to Deaths door complaining of gripings and a hard swelling which she desired all the Physitians and Chyrurgeons to feel having lost all appetite but that little which she recovered by the use of sharp things as Verjuice Lemmons c. she was wont to say to her Neighbours that she bare a Child that should be the cause of her death After she was dead her Husband got two experienced Chyrurgeons to open her body who having opened the belly and taken away the Peritonaeum saw the Womb of several colours as the flesh that is about the head and neck of a Turky-cock but as it were of a Horny substance They begun to make an incision in it with a Rasour but finding it resisted the edge they begun to use their Incision knives with all their strength at last one of them by chance hit the Scull and after that some Ribs and then the Shoulder bone by which knowing that there was bones contained in that lump with greater strength they made a deeper Incision and having parted the edges of the womb saw in the bottom of the womb a Child wrapped in the membrane called Allantoides at which the Chyrugeons wondering sent for the Physitians to have their opinion in a thing that is almost beyond belief in the mean time people flocking thither from all parts and troubling the Chyrurgeons in their operation they thought good to take away with their Instruments all that Lump as a Tree from its Roots and to carry it home that they might with more time and leasure examine the whole Anatomy of it In that hasty pulling out of the Child they had no time to observe what Chorion it had what umbilical Vessels and what connexion there was of the Allantoides with the Womb and with the Child chiefly about the right hip the Buttocks and the Back-bone being all grown solid together The scituation of the Child was almost Spherical the face leaning upon the breast and the Nostriâ—s upon the Knees the bones of the Head were but thin but very hard and shining like Horn the skin of the Head was hairy in many places the head did hang so much upon the left arm that the Ear and part of the skull had given way to the Shoulder-bone the Elbow was bent towards the Shoulder stretching only his hand which was so close shut and the fingers sticking so fast to the Palm of it that although they did appear distinct one from another never theless it was all but one and the same stone the right arm did strerch its hand towards the Navel which unadvisedly was broken by the wrist and left in the Mothers Belly the left Thigh Knee and Leg were on the top of the right ones with which they were so entangled that the left heel and the sole of the foot were planted upon the right foot who seemed to have given place to them and were almost inseparably joyned for all such hardness of the matter the body was not less than that of other Children of the same age but kept a perfect fulness and proportion all the internal parts as the Brains the Heart the Liver had their natural shape and were not altogether so hard as the external parts so that to this very day this little body defieth all kind of corruption This Child was kept in my time by one Mr. Michel a Chirurgion of Sens who kindly shewed it to all the strangers that came far and near to see it The Fame of it was so great that Doctor Mayerne coming from Switzerland to
England took his way through Sens to see it and would have perswaded King Charles I. to buy it as himself told me since that I hear it was fallen into the hands of the Venetians In this History there is two observable wonders One that the Child dying in the Womb did not corrupt and so cause the death of its Mother The other by what vertue or power of the body this child was petrified seeing that the Womb is a hot and moist place and therefore more subject to putrifaction Those that will satisfie themselves with the reasons of it and the truth of the History may read Johannes Alibosius Physician of Sens who was an eye witness of it and Sennertus in his book of Sympt qum seminis in utero accidunt Now this accident being so rare and without parallel our Author thought fit to foretel it and to cover it in abscure tearms that he might not appear ridiculous in so admirable an eveut When therefore he saith That which shall live and shall have no Sense he meaneth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or child petrified which had a Life while it was in the Mothers belly being tied to it by the several Vessels and connexions known to Anatomists and yet was senseless in that it was petrified When in the second verse he saith The Iron shall destroy the art of it he meaneth that it should be spoiled by the rasour in the two last verses he saith that the Towns of Autun Chalons Langres and Sens the Town in which this did happen should that same year suffer much damage by Hail and Ice which did come to pass as many persons may justify in that Countrey that are alive to this day XXIII French Au mois troisiesme se levant le Soleil Sanglier Leopard aux champs Mars pour combatre Leopard lassé au Ciel estend son oeil Un Aigle autour du Soleil voit sesbatre English In the third month at the rising of the Sun The Boar and Leopard in Marth camp to fight The Leopard weary lift his eyes to to Haven And seeth an Eagle playing about the Sun ANNOT. This signifieth a particular accident viz. that in the third Month which is that of March at the rising of the Sun the Boar and the Leopard that is two persons of quality hidden under these names shall go into the fields to fight a Duel The Leopard one of them being weary shall lift up his eyes to Heaven calling upon God and thereupon shall see an Eagle playing about the Sun that is shall get the Victory of which the Eagle is the Emblem XXIV French A Cité nevue pensif pour condamner Loisel de proie au ciel se vient offrir Apres Victoire a Captifs pardonner Cremone Mantoue grands maux auront oufâ—ert English In the new City for to condemn a Prisoner The Bird of pray shall offer himself to Heaven After the Victory the Prisoners shall be forgiven After Cremona and Mantua have suffered many troubles ANNOT. This name of new City is appropriated to several ones in every Countrey The French have many Villeneufuas the Germans many Newstads the Italians and Spaniards many Villanovas so that it is hard to guess which of them the Author meaneth The missing of this dore makes the rest of the Prophecie so obscure that I had rather leave it to the liberty of the Reader than to pretend a true explication of it I shall only say that Cremona and Mantua are two famous Towns in Italy which are here threatned XXV French Perdu trouvé caché de si long siecle Sera Pasteur demy-Dieu honoré Ains que la Lune acheve son grand Siecle Par autre vents fera deshonoré English Lost found again hidden so great a while A Pastor as Deme-God shall be honoured But before the Moon endeth her great Age By other winds he shall be dishonoured ANNOT. The Prophecie is concerning the body of a famous Churchman which was lost and shall be fonnd again and worshiped as a Demy-God but before the Moon hath run her great age which is of 13 Months it shall be vilified and dishonoured XXVI French Le grand du Foudre tombe d'heure diurne Mal predit par Porteur populaire Suivant presage tombe d'heure nocturne Conflit Rheims Londres Etrusque Pestifere English The great Man falleth by the Lightning in the day time An evil foretold by a common Porter According to this foretelling another falleth in the night A fight at Rhemes and the Plague at London and Tuscany ANNOT. This is concerning some great man who being premonished by a common Carrier not to travel upon a certain day did slight the advice and was strucken by Lightning in the day time and another in the night at the same time there was a fight at Rhemes and the Plague at London and in Tuscany which in Latin is called Etruria XXVII French Des soubs le Chesne Guyen du Ciel frappé Non loin de la est caché le Thresor Qui par long Siecles avoit esté grappé Trouvé mourra l'oeil crevé de ressor English Under the Oak Guyen strucken from Heaven Not far from it is the Treasure hidden Which hath been many Ages a gathering Being found he shall die the eye put out by a spring ANNOT. The sense of it is that somebody who is named here Guyen being under an Oak shall be strucken with the lightning and that near that place there is a great Treasure that hath been many years a gathering and that he who shall find it shall die being shot in the eye with a Fire-lock XXVIII French La Tour de Bouk craindra fuste Barbare Un temps long temps apres Barque Hesperique Bestial gens meubles tous deux feront grand tare Taurus Libra quelle mortelle pique English The Tower of Bonk shall be in fear of a Barbarian Fleet For a while and long after afraid of Spanish shipping Flocks peoples goods both shall receive great damage Taurus and Libra O what a deadly feud ANNOT. The Tower of Bouk is a strong place seated by the Rhosne where it entereth into the Mediterranean Sea it is said here that it shall be in fear of a Barbarian Fleet and after that of a Spanish one and that both the Spaniard and the French shall have great losses in Cattle People and Goods and this shall happen when the Sun shall be in the Signs of Taurus and Libra XXIX French Quand le Poisson Terrestre Aquotique Par forte vague au gravier sera mis Sa forme estrange suave horrifique Par Mer aux murs bien tost les Enemies English When the Fish that is both Terrestrial and Aquatick By a strong Wave shall be cast upon the Sand With his strange fearful sweet horrid form Soon after the enemies will come near to the Walls by Sea ANNOT. This signifieth no more but that after a Fish Terrestrial and Aquatick that is which liveth
then shall be great commotions in France and Italy LII French Les deux malins de Scorpion conjoint Le grand Seigneur meurtry dedans sa salle Peste a l'Eglise par le nouveau Roy joint L' Europe basse Septentrionale English The two malignants of Scorpion being joyned The grand Seignor murdered in his Hall Plague to the Church by a King newly joyned to it Europe low and Septentrional ANNOT. This third position of the Celestial bodies foretelleth the death of the great Turk who should be murdered in his own Chamber as happened to Sultan Osman who was strangled in his Chamber by the command of Daout Bassa great Vizeir about the year 1622. vide the Turkish History The rest of the Prophecy is concerning a King who being newly joyned to the Church I suppose of Rome shall bring much mischief to it and in his time Europe shall be brought very low and in a manner confined to a corner of the North which hath relation to the foregoing 49. Stanza which see in its place LIII French Las qu'on verra grand peuple tourmenté Et la Loy Sainte en totale ruine Par autres Loix toute la Chrestienté Quand d'Or d'Argent trouve nouvelle Mine English Alas how a great people shall be tormented And the Holy Law in an utter ruine By other Laws all Christendom troubled When new Mines of Gold and Silver shall be found ANNOT. This is a true Prophecy of the mischiefs that have happened in the World by the finding of the Mines in America first to the Indians themselves called here a great People by the cruelty of the Spaniards and then to all Christendom besides by the evils that this Idol Mammon hath brought into it LIV. French Deux revolts faits du malin facigere De Regne Siecles fait permutation Le mobil signe a son endroit s'Ingere Aux deux egaux d'Inclination English Two revolts shall be made by the wicked Link-carrier Which shall make a change of the Reign and the Age The moveable Sign doth offer it self for it To the two equals in inclination ANNOT. This obscure Stanza must be interpreted thus Two revolts shall be made by the wicked Link-carrier that is Paris which is the Link-carrier of France and whose example the rest of the Towns follow shall revolt twice the first revolt was against Henry III. in the time of the Barricadoes the second against Henry IV. his successor Which shall make a change of the Reign and the Age This happened when the house of Valois was extinguished and the house of Bourbon came in and that is the change of the Reign The change of the Age was because this did happen about the end of the year 1599. and the beginning 1600. which was a change of Age. The moueable sign offers it self for it That is the position of the Heavens was such as to forward these accidents To the two equals in ambition That is to Henry III. and Henry IV. who both intended and went about to reduce Paris to obedience LV. French Soubs lopposite climat Babilonique Grande sera de sang effusion Que Terre Mer Air Ciel sera inique Sectes Faim Regnes Pestes Confusion English In the Climat opposite to the Babylonian There shall be a great effusion of Blood Insomuch that the Land and Sea Air and Heaven shall seem unjust Sects Famine Reigns Plague Confusion ANNOT. There is nothing difficult here but what Climat is that is opposite to the Babylonian of which every body may satisfie himself by perusing the Globe LVI French Vous verrez tost ou tard faire grand change Horreurs extremes vindications Que si la Lune conduite par son Ange Le Ciel sapproche des inclinations English You shall see soon or late great alterations Extreme horrours and revenges The Moon leaden by her Angel The Heaven draweth near its inclinations ANNOT. I conceive there is some things omitted and corrupted by the Press in this Stanza which rendreth it so difficult therefore I had rather leave it to the decision of the impartial Reader than venture my opinion upon it LVII French Par grand discord la trombe tremblera Accord rompu dressant la teste au Ciel Bouche sanglante dans le sang nagera Au Sol la face ointe le loit Miel English By great discord the Trumpet shall sound Agreement broken lifting the head to Heaven A bloody mouth shall swim in blood The face turned to the Sun anointed with Milk and Honey ANNOT. The words and sence are plain and I cannot believe that there is any great mystery hidden under these words LVIII French Trenché le ventre naistra ave deux festes quattre bras quel qu'ans entiers vivra Jour qu'Aquilare celebrera ses festes Fossan Thurin chef Ferrare fuiera English Slit in the belly shall be born with two heads And four Arms it shall live some years The day that Aquilare shall celebrate his Festivals Fossan Thurin chief Ferrare shall run away ANNOT. In the first Verse the Author speaketh of a Monster that had two heads and four Arms and the Belly slit that is to say it was a female His Son Caesar in his History of Provence saith that in the Town of Senan in Provence a Child was born with two heads and that it was foretold by some that were skilful in Astronomy by which words I guess he spake of his Father sith the Astrologers cannot foretel the birth of a particular Monster and therefore Nostradamus only was able to do it in those days He faith in the same place that it was born in February 1554 and was brought to Salon to be shewed to his Father and thence was carried to Claudius Earl of Savoy Governour of Provence who commonly had his residence at Salon He maketh no mention if he had four Arms nor what Sex it was of it may be that being in swadling cloths no body took notice of the Arms or Sex The Author Prophecieth that it should live some years it may be two or three and that is was preserved to see whether in time it should have the use of its Senses of the Tongue and understanding of its two Heads to see whether there were two Souls or onely one and to say the Truth I think that in such an accident both Heads ought to be Baptized that in case there should be two Souls both should partake of the blood of Christ for their Eternal Salvation I do not find in the same History how long it lived it being a thing not much material to History In the third Verse he marketh The day that Aquilare shall celebrate his Festivals and in the fourth he saith that Fossan Thurin chief Ferrare shall run away To understand this one must suppose here that the Town of Cazal is called here the chief of Ferrare because it is the chief City of Montferrat and as Paradin saith is called Cazal St.
Luitte English During many nights the Earth shall quake About the Spring two great Earth-quakes shall follow one another Corinth Ephesus shall swim in the two Seas War shall be moved by two great Wrestlers ANNOT. Corinth is a City of Grecia and Ephesus one of Asia the rest is plain LIII French Le grande Peste de cité maritime Ne cessera que Mort ne soit vengée Du juste sang par prix damné fans crime De la grande Dame par feinte noutragée English The great Plague of the Maritime City Shall not cease till the death be revenged Of the just blood by price condemned without crime Of the great Dame not fainedly abused ANNOT. This is a confirmation of the LI. Stanza and foretelleth the great Plague we have had here in the year 1665. which he saith shall not cease till the death of the Just blood meaning King Charles the I. be avenged who was as is here expressed condemned without crime and sold for a Price By the great Dame unfainedly abused he meaneth the sumptuous Cathedralof St. Paul which was polluted and made a Stable by those prophane wretches LIV. French Par gent estrange Nation lomtaine Leur grand Cité apres eau fort troublée Fille sans trop different de domaine Prins chef serreure navoir esté riblée English By a strange people and remote Nation The great City near the water shall be much troubled The Girl without great difference for a portion Shall take the Captain the Lock having not been pick. ANNOT. In the explication of this mystical Stanza I believe every body may be as wise as I. LV. French Dans le conflit le grand qui peu valoit A son dernier fera cas merveilleux Pendant qu' Adrie verra ce qu'il failloit Dans le Banquet poignarde l'orgueilleux English In the fight the great one who was but little worth At his last endeavour shall do a wonderful thing While Adria shall see what was wanting In the Banquet he shall stabb the proud one ANNOT. This is concerning some eminent person who having shewed no great valour in a Battle shall nevertheless in a Banquet be so bold as to stab a person of quality that was proud This accident must happen somewhere about Venice because he saith that Adria which is taken for Venice shall look on LVI French Que Peste Glaive n'a sceu definer Mort dans les pluies sommet du Ciel frappé L'Abbé mourra quand verra ruiner Ceux du Naufrage l'Escueil voulant graper English He whom neither Plague nor Sword could destroy Shall die in the Rain being stricken with Thunder The Abbot shall die when he shall see ruined Those in the Shipwrack striving to catch hold of the Rock ANNOT. There is two accidents contained in this Stanza the first is in the two first Verses where he saith that some considerable person who had escaped the Sword and the Plague shall be strucken by the Thunder and die in a great showr of Rain The second is in the two last Verses where he saith an Abbot shall perish by Shipwrack thinking to save himself by holding the Rock LVII French Avant conflit le grand tombera Le grand a mort trop subite plainte Nay miparfait la plus part nagera Aupres du Fleuve de sang la Terre teinte English Before the Battle the great one shall fall The great one to death too sudden and bewailed One shall be born half perfect the most part shall swim Near the River the Earth shall be dyed with blood ANNOT. The words are plain enough but of the sease every one may think what he pleaseth LVIII French Sans pied ne main dent aigue forte Par Globe au fort de Port laisne nay Pres du portail desloial le transporte Seline luit petit grand emmené English Without foot or hand sharp and strong tooth By a Globe in the middle of the Port and the first born Near the Gate shall be transported by a Traitor Seline shineth the little great one carried away ANNOT. The sense of the whole is this that an Infant begot by some person of quality shall be exposed in the night time the Moon shining which he calleth Seline from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Moon LIX French Classe Gauloise par appuy de grand Garde Du grand Neptune ses tridens Soldats Ronger Provence pour soustenir grand bande Plus Mars Narbon par Javelots Dards English The French Fleet by the help of the great Guard Of great Neptune and his Tridemary Soldiers Shall gnaw Provence by keeping great company Besides Mars shall plague Narbon by Javelins and Darts ANNOT. Here be two things designed in this Stanza one is concerning Provence which shall be eaten up by Soldiers and the other concerning the City of Narbon which shall be Besieged or the Citizens fall out among themselves LX. French La foy Punique en Orient rompue Grand Jud. Rhosne Loire Tag changeront Quand du Mulet la faim sera repeue Classe espargie Sang Corps nageront English The punick faith broken in the East Great Jud. and Rhosne Loire and Tag shall be changed When the Mules hunger shall be satisfied The Fleet scattered Blood and Bodies shall swim ANNOT. The Punick Faith in Latine Punica fides a false Faith was so called from the Carthaginians called in Latine Paeni which was an unfaithful Nation I do not know what he meaneth by great Jud. as for Rhosne Loire and Tag they are three Rivers the two fiâ—st in France the last is the River of Lisbone called in Latine Tagus The rest is easie LXI French Agen Tonneins Gironde la Rochelle O sang Troien mort au Port de la fleche Derrier le Fleuve au Fort mise leschelle Pointes feu grand meurtre sur la bresche English Agen Tonneins Gironde and Rochelle O Trojan blood death is at the barbour of the Arrow Beyond the River the Ladder shall be raised against the Fort Points fire great murder upon the breach ANNOT. Agen and Tonneins are two Towns in Gascony Gironde is a River that passeth in that Countrey the sense therefore of the whole is that there shall be great Wars and fightings in those Towns as also upon that River which happened in the time of the civil Wars in France as every body may read in the Annals and also in the Commentaries of the Lord of Monluck LXII French Mabus puis tost alors mourra viendra Des gens bestes un horrible desfaite Puis tout a coup la vengeance on verra Sang Main Soif Faim quand courra la Comete English Mabus shall come and soon after shall die Of people and beasts shall be an horrible destruction Then on a sudden the vengeance shall be seen Blood Hand Thirst Famine when the Comet shall run ANNOT. Here is nothing hard but who should be
great neighbour that is the Empire shall follow his steps that is be put down too The two last Verses are plain LXIV French Le Chef de Perse remplira grand Olchade Classe trireme contre gent Mahometique De Parthe Mede piller les Cyclades Repos long temps au grand Port Jonique English The Head of Persia shall fill a great Olchade A Fleet of Galleys against the Mahometan Nation From Parthia and Media they shall come to plunder the Cyclades A long rest shall be on the Jonique Port. ANNOT. I could not find what he meaneth by Olchade The second Verse is plain Parthia and Media are two Kingdoms depending from that of Persia The Islands of Cyclades are in the Aegean Sea and are so called because they are like a Garment about the City of Delos for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifieth a round garment of a woman The Jonique Sea is that Sea in Grecia which is about Athens and Corinth c. LXV French Quand le Sepulchre du grand Romain trouvé Le jour apres sera esleu Pontife Du Senat gueres il ne sera prouvé Empoisonné son sang au Sacre Scyphe English When the Sepulcher of the great Roman shall be found The next day after a Pope shall be elected Who shall not be much approved by the Senate Poisoned his blood in the Sacred Scyphe ANNOT. This seemeth to foretel the finding out of the Sepulcher of some famous Roman and that the next day after a Pope shall be Elected who being not well approved of by the Conclave shall be poisoned in the Chalice which is the Communion Cup that the Roman Catholicks use at Mass signified here by the Latine word Soyphus LXVI French Le grand Baillif d' Orleans mis a mort Sera par un de sang vindicatif De mort merite ne mourra ne par sort De pieds mains mal le faisoit captif English The great Bailif of Orleans shall be put to death By one of a revengeful blood He shall not die of a deserved death nor by chance But the disease of being tied hand and foot hath made him prisoner ANNOT. The Bailif of Orleans is a great Officer for he is there Lord Chief Justice and of all the precincts It seemeth that this man shall be put to death by one of a revengeful blood not that he had deserved it or come to it by chance but because he shall be tied hand and foot and die in prison LXVII French Une nouvelle Secte de Philosophes Mesprisant mort or honneurs richesses Des Monts Germains seront fort limitrophes A les ensuivre auront appuy presses English A new Sect of Philosophers shall rise Despising Death Gold Honours and Riches They shall be near the Mountains of Germany They shall have abundance of others to support and follow them ANNOT. This is properly said of the Anabaptists in Germany in the time of John de Leyden and now of the Quakers in England and elsewhere LXVIII French Peuple sans Chef d' Espagne d'Italie Morts profligez dedans le Cheronese Leur dict trahy par legere folie Le sang nager per tout a la traverse English A people of Spain and Italy without a Head Shall die being overcome in the Cheronese Their saying shall be betrayed by a light folly The blood shall swim all over at random ANNOT. Cheronese is a Land or ground unmanured the rest is plain LXIX French Grand exercite conduit par jouvenceau Se viendra rendre aux mains des ennemis Mais le vieillard nay au demy pourceau Fera Chalon Mascon estre amis English A great Army led by a young man Shall yield it self in the hands of the enemies But the old man born at the sign of the halfe-Hog Shall cause Chalon and Mascon to be friends ANNOT. The two first Verses are plain as for the third Verse I could not find who that Old man should be that shall be born at the sign of the half-Hog Chalon and Mascon are two Cities in France the first in Champagne the last in Burgundy LXX French La grand Bretagne comprise d' Angleterre Viendra par eaux si haut a inondre La Ligue nevue d' Ausone fera gerre Que contre eux ils se viendront bander English Great Britany comprehended in England Shall suffer so great an Inundation by Waters The new League of Ausone shall make Wars So that they shall stand against them ANNOT. This Prophecie is divided in two parts The first two Verses foretel a great Innundation that was to happen in England The last two speak of a league and insurrection that shall be at Bordeaux which is here called Ausone from a famous Latine Poet named Ausonius who was born in that City As to the first part after much seeking and enquiry I found the truth of it in a Latine book called Rerum in Gallia Belgia Hispania Anglia c. gestarum anno 1607. Tomi septimi Liber secundus conscriptus a Nicolao Gotardo Artus Dantiscano where the History is related thus About the end of January 1607. the Sea-broke out so violently in England that after the breaking of Fences and Dikes it caused very great damages to the Inhabitants The greatest mischief was done in Somersetshire where the water did overflow ten Leagues in length and two in breadth twelve foot high in the most eminent places This sudden Innundation brought a fearful alarm to the Countrey people some of them going to their Plough were fained to run back to their houses where they found their enemies at their doors viz. Death and Water who without distinction swept them away In a little time the Towns appeared like Islands encompassed on all sides and presently after were swallowed up so that the tops of the Trees were scarce seen This new Flood covered so the Towns of Hansfield in the same County those of Grantham Kenbus Kingston and Briandon with several Farms built in the Champion Countrey that none of the Buildings could be seen If you add to this the devastation of the places the quantity of Corn Fruit and Grass that was lost the misery shall be so great as not to be expressed During this fearful quarrel between the Water and the Land an exceeding great number of people died of all Ages and Sexes it would avail them nothing to get into the upper Stories and Roofs of houses nor upon the highest Trees for the imperious Waters did so swell and rage that the Foundations of the houses and roots of the Trees were loosened so that both fell to the Ground or rather into the Water The people seeing no way to escape resolved to die patiently No body could without great grief see the Oxen and Sheep drowning for there was such a numerous quantity of them that a far off one would have thought them to be Rocks in the Sea but seeing them swiming and hearing them bleating
that Law shall be most seducing ANNOT. This foretelleth the declining of the Mahometan Religion after which another Religion shall be set up worse then the Mahometan The first decay of it shall begin in Scythia a Kingdom belonging to the King of Persia through which runneth the River Boristhenes XCVI French Chef de Fossan aura gorge coupée Par le Ducteur du Limier L'curier Le fait patré par ceux du Mont Tarpee Saturne en Leo 13. de February English The Chief of Fossan shall have his throat cut By the Leader of the Hunt and Greyhond The fact committed by those of the Tarpeian Mountain Saturn being in Leo the 13. of February ANNOT. Fossan is a City in Piemont belonging to the Duke of Savoy the Chief man of Governour of which is threatned here to have his throat cut by some souldiers either of Rome or belonging to Rome signified here by the Tarpeian Mountain upon which the Capitol was built and this fact to the committed by one that shall be a famous Huntsman upon the 13 of February Saturn being then in the Sign of Leo. XCVII French Nouvelle Loy Terre neuve occuper Vers la Syrie Judée Palestine Le grand Empire Barbare corruer Avant que Phebe son Siecle determine English A new Law shall occupy a new Countrey Towards Syria Judea and Palestina The great Barbarian Empire shall fall down Before Phoebe maketh an end of her course ANNOT. The words and sense are plain XCVIII French Deux Royal Freres si fort guerroieront Qu'entreux sera la guerre si mortelle Qu'un chacun places fortes occuperont De Regne vie sera leur grand querelle English Two Royal Brothers shall War so much one against the other That the War between them shall be mortal Each of them shall seize upon strong places Their quarrel shall be concerning Kingdom and Life ANNOT. This needeth no interpretation XCIX French Aux Champs Herbus d' Alein du Varneigre Du Mont Lebron proche de la Durance Camps des deux parts conflict sera si aigre Mesopotamie defaillira en France English In the Meadow Fields of Alein and Varneigre Of the Mountain Lebron near the Durance Armies on both sides the fight shall be so sharp That Mesopotamia shall be wanting in France ANNOT. Alain and Vernaigre are two small Towns in France seated by the Mountain Lebron near the River called Durance where the Author saith there shall be such a sharp fight that Mesopetamia shall be wanting in France to understand this you must know that Mesopotamia is a Countrey between two Rivers from the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth middle and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a River the meaning then of the Author is that the Battle so sharp the ground shall be wanting to bury the dead C. French Entre Gaulois le dernier honoré D'homme ennemy sera victorieux Force terreur en moment exploré D'Un coup de trait quand mourra l'envieux English He that is the least honoured among the French Shall be Conqueror of the man that was his Enemy Strength and terrour shall in a moment be tried When the envious shall be killed with an Arrow ANNOT. This is plain THE PROPHECIES OF Michael Nostradamus CENTURY IV. I. French SEra du reste de sang non espandu Venice quiert secours estre donné Apres avoir bien lon temps attendu Cité livrée au premier Cor sonné English There shall be a remnant of blood unspilt Venice shall seek for succours After having long waited for it The City shall be surrendred at the first sound of the Trumpet ANNOT. This to my judgement is concerning the Siege of Candia in which the Venetians for the space of about twenty years desired and expected succours from the Christian Princes which came so slowly that the City was fained to surrender upon honorable terms which is the meaning of the first Verse There shall be a remnant of blood unspilt II. French Par mort la France prendra voiage a faire Classe par Mer marcher Monts Pyrenées Espagne en trouble marcher gent militaire Des plus grands Dames en France emmenées English By reason of a death France shall undertake a Journey They shall have a Fleet at Sea and march towards the Pyrenes Spain shall be in trouble by an Army Some of the greatest Ladies in France carried away ANNOT. The whole sense of this is that by reason of some bodies death France shall make war against Spain by Sea and Land and put Spain in great trouble The fourth Verse saith that some of the greatest Ladies in France shall be carried away but the question is whether by the Spaniards or which is more probable by their own Husbands going to war against Spain III. French D' Arras Bourges de Brodes grands enseignes Un plus grand nombre de Gascons battre a pied Ceux long du Rhosne saigneront les Espagnes Proche du Mont ou Sagunte sassied English From Arras and Bourges many colours of black men shall come A greater number of Gascons shall go on foot Those along the Rhosne shall let Spain blood Near the Mountain where Saguntus is seated ANNOT. Arras and Bourges are Cities of France As for brodes we have said before that it signifie brown men such as are the Gascoins inhabiting the Province of Aquitania near Spain Saguntus is a City in Spain that was destroyed by the Romans IV. French L'Important Prince fasché plaint querelle De rapts pillé par Coqs par Libiques Grand par Terre par Mer infinis Voiles Seule Italie sera chassant Celtiques English The considerable Prince vexed complaineth and quarelleth Concerning rapes and plunderings done by the Cocks and Libiques Great trouble by Land by Sea infinite Sails Italy alone shall drive away the French ANNOT. This considerable Prince was Philip the II. King of Spain who was vexed to see the Cocks that is the French and Libiques that is the Turks joyned together under Barbarossa to commit so many Rapes and violences upon his subjects V. French Croix Paix soubs un accomply Divin Verbe L' Espagne Gaules seront unis ensemble Grand clade proche combat tresacerbe Coeur si hardy ne sera qui ne tremble English The Cross shall have peace under an accomplished Divine Word Spain and France shall be united together A great Battle near hand and a most sharp fight No heart so stout but shall tremble ANNOT. We have said before that by Divine Word we must not understadd the second person of the Trinity but a Divine or Theologian called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which also signifieth Divine Word Therefore the meaning of the first Verse is that under the Government of some eminent Divine be like a good Pope the Cross shall have peace that is the Christian Religion shall be in Peace and persecution shall
a thousand ANNOT. Here you must observe that the Author being a Papist speaketh this concerning the City of Geneva which he saith from a free City became a slave when it shook off the Duke of Savoy's domination and became a retreat to the Protestants whom he called the banished and dreamers In the third Verse by the King changed in his mind that shall not be so froward to them he meaneth Henry IV. who having changed the Protestant Religion to be a Roman Catholick did undertake their protection against the Duke of Savoy their Prince Hence followeth the explication of the fourth Verse when he saith that of one hundred they shall become more than a thousand for in few years the Protestants became so numerous that they drove the Roman Catholicks wholly out of the Town and so have remained to this day Masters of it XVII French Changer a Beaune Nuis Chalons Dijon Le Duc voulant amender la barrée Marchant pres Fleuve Poisson bec de plongeon Verra la queüe Porte sera serrée English There shall be a change at Beaume Nuis Chalons Dijon The Duke going about to raise Taxes The Merchant near the River shall see the tail Of a Fish having the Bill of a Cormorant the door shall be shut ANNOT. Beaune Chalons and Dijon are Cities in France Nuis is a Town in Germany near the Rhyne three or four Leagues below Colen For the rest every one may make his own interpretation for it is hard to guess who this Duke should be or that Fish either that shall have a Cormorants Bill after whom the door shall be shut XVIII French Les plus Lettrez dessus les faits Coelestes Seront par Princes ignorans reprouvez Punis d'Edict chassez comme scelestes Et mis a mort la ou seront trouvez English The most Learned in the Celestial sciences Shall be found fault with by ignorant Princes Punished by proclamation chased away as wicked And put to death where they shall be found ANNOT. This is plain and signifieth no more then a persecution against the Professors of Heavenly sciences such as are Astrologers Astronomers c. XIX French Devant Rouan d' Insubres mis le Siege Par Terre Mer enfermez les passages D' Hainaut de Flandres de Gand ceux de Liege Par leurs levées raviront les Rivages English Before Rouan a Siege shall be laid by the Insubrians By Sea and Land the passages shall be shut up Those of Hainaut Flanders Ghent and Liege With their Troops shall plunder the Sea-shore ANNOT. This is still concerning the Duke of Parma's Army when he came into France against Henry the IV. in favour of the League for his Army wherewith he Besieged Rouen was compounded of all those Nations the greatest part of which were Italians called here Insubrians from the Latin word Insubria which signifieth the Countreys of Savoy and Piemont XX. French Paix uberté long temps on ne loüera Part tout son Regne desert la fleur de Lis Corps mort d'Eau Terre on apportera Sperants vain heur d'estre la ensevelis English Peace and plenty shall not be long praised All the time of his Reign the Flower de Luce shall be deserted Bodies shall die by water Earth shall be brought Hoping vainly to be there Buried ANNOT. This only foretelleth a great Famine and Inundation in France signified here by the Flower de Luce. XXI French Le changement sera fort difficile Cité Province au change gain fera Coeur haut prudent mis chassé Inhabile Mer Terre Peuple son estat changera English The change shall be very hard The City and Countrey shall gain by the change A high prudent heart shall be put in the unworthy expelled Sea Land People shall change its condition ANNOT. This needeth no Interpretation XXII French La grand Copie qui sera dechassée Dans un moment fera besoing au Roy La Foy promise de loing sera faucée Nud se verra en piteux desarroy English The great Army that shall be rejected In a moment shall be wanted by the King The faith promised a far off shall be broken So that he shall be left naked in a pitiful case ANNOT. This is plain XXIII French La Legion dans la Marine classe Calcine Magnes Souphre Poix bruslera Le long repos de l'asseurée place Port Selin chercher feu les consumera English The Legion in the Maritine Fleet Calcineth Magnes shall burn Brimstone and Pitch The long rest of the secure place They shall seek Port Selyn but fire shall consume them ANNOT. Here we must observe four things the first is that Calais is called by the Author The long rest of the secure place Because then viz. in the year 1555. it was yet in the power of the King of England and had been quietly before for the space of 287. years that is from the year 1347. till the year 1555. and was so still till the year 1557. when the Duke of Guise took it whence we gather that it was a secure place that had enjoyed so long a rest The second is that those of Diepe did watch for the Spaniards in the passage between Dover and Calais therefore the Author saith They shall seek Port Selyn Selyn Port or Harbour is always taken by the Author for an Harbour in the Ocean The third is that the great fight between the French and the Spaniards was by fire so that most part of the Ships on each side were burnt and the Spanish and French Souldiers die cast themselves into the Sea to save their lives in their enemies Ships where they were slain The fourth is that those of Diepe being extraordinary skilsul in Sea-fights had made great quantity of artificial fires to cast into the Spanish Ships but the Ships grapling one with another they were burnt on both sides Upon those four circumstances the two first Verses say that the Legion in the Fleet Galcineth magnes that is Loadstone burnt and shall burn Pitch and Brimstone to make Artificial fires The third and fourth Verse say that this Sea Legion shall seek an Harbour in the Ocean which shall be a secure place by a long rest that is Calais She will seek that Selyn Harbour to shelter her self because Calais did then belong to the English but by reason of the narrowness of the Sea the French watched for the Spaniards there and to shew that they sought onely for Calais to meet the Spaniards they carried the Spanish Ships which they took into Diepe and not into Calais The French Impression hath a fault here putting Port Hercle instead of Port Selyn which is a manifest error for the taking of Port Hercle by the Florentines the 14. of June 1â—â—5 was by a Land Army besides that Port Selyn is always taken by the Author for a Port in the Ocean XXIV French Ouy soubs Terre Sainte Dame voix feinte Humaine flamme pour Divine voir
which is the head of wisdom And now is the Rose of the World A Bridge shall be ruinated with its great preeminence It shall be subdued and made a wrack by the Waves ANNOT. He foretelleth the destruction of a famous Bridge in the Countrey of Attica of which Athens is the chief City and because it was always famous for learning he calleth it here the head of VVisdom and that VVisdom the Rose of the VVorld XXXII French Ou tout bon est tout bien Soleil Lune Est aboundant sa ruine s'approche Le Ciel s'advance a changer ta fortune En mesme estat que la septiesme Roche English Where all well is all good O Sun and Moon Is existent his ruine draweth near The Heaven is making hast to change thy fortune Into the same case as the seventh Rockis ANNOT. By this dark Stanza the Author seemeth to foretell the woful condition of a Countrey that was happy before but shall fall to ruine I suspect he intended France because being a Frenchman he did not name it for I think there was never such a change in the world as was in that Kingdom in the time of the Civil VVars between the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants XXXIII French Des principaux de Cité rebellée Qui tiendront fort pour liberté r'avoir Detrencher masles infoelice meslée Cris hurlemens a Nantes pitieux voir English Of the chief men in a rebelled City Who shall stand out to recover their liberty The Males shall be cut in pieces O unhappy quarrel Cries and houlings it shall be pity to see at Nantes ANNOT. The Author applyeth this Prophecie to the City of Nantes in Britany but want of Books that treat of the History of that Countrey I could neither satisfie my self nor the Reader if this hath come to pass already or not XXXIV French Du plus profond de l'occident Anglois Ou est le chef de l'Isle Britanique Entrera classe en Garonne par Blois Par Vin Sel saux cachez aux barriques English From the deepest Westerly part of England Where the chief of the Britain Island is A Fleet shall come into the Garonne by Blaye By Wine and Salt fire shall be hidden in Barrels ANNOT. There is a notable and sensible error in the French Copy and without reforming it the sense is not only obscure but also impossible for instead of Blois which the Author hath put here I suppose to make the rime good it must be written Blaye which is a sea Town of the mouth of the River Garonne and Blois is a mid-Land Town upon the River Loire about a hundred Leagues distant from the other The rest signifieth no more but that there shall be some VVarlike stratagem made use of by the French understood here by the names of Wine and Salt in puting fire into Barrels XXXV French Par Cité franche de la grand Mer Seline Qui porte encor l'estomach la pierre Angloise classe viendra soubs la bruine Prendre un rameau de grand ouverte guerre English By a free City of the Selyne Sea Which carrieth yet the stone in the Stomach An English Fleet shall come under a fog To take a branch of great open War ANNOT. What should the Author mean by the free City of the great Seline Sea that carryeth yet the stone in the stomach is hard to guess for my part I believe it to be Venice First because by the Seline Sea he always understands the Mediterranean because the great Turks name in our Authors time was Selyn who was Master of the greatest part of it Secondly there is no other free City so considerable as this Thirdly by the stone in the Stomach may be understood the Pillars that are in the Piazza of St. Maâ—k and as it were in the Centre of Venice as the stomach is in the Body The sense therefore is this as I take it that a considerable Fleet shall come to Venice or rather to Molamocco which is the Harbour and there take a branch of great open VVar that is to be either against the Venetians or against the Turk in their behalf XXXVI French De Soeur le frere par fimulte feintise Viendra mesler rosee en Mineral Sur la placente donne a vieille tardive Meurt le goustant sera simple rura English The Brother of the Sister with a fained dissimulation Shall mix Dew with Mineral In a Cake given to a slow old woman She dieth tasting of the deed shall be simple and Countrey I ke ANNOT. This foretelleth a notable poisoning that shall be done by a Brother upon his sister which because she died not fast enough according to his mind and therefore called her slow he would set her forward with a poisoned Cake the Poison was Mineral and therefore Arsenick or sublimate mixed with Manna called here Dew because Manna is nothing but a Dew condensed upon the Bark of a certain Tree the Conclusion is that the woman shall die eating of it though the meat seemed to be simple and rural XXXVII French Trois sens seront d'un vouloir accord Qui pour venir au bout de leur attainte Vingt mois apres tous eux leurs records Leur Roy trahy simulant haine feinte English Three hundred shall be of one mind and agreement That they may compass their ends Twenty months after by all them and their partners Their King shall be betrayed by dissembling a fained hatred ANNOT. The difficulty of meeting in any Countrey three hundred men of one mind hath perswaded me that our Author writ this for England but by reason there hath been since a general pardon I will keep my mind to my self XXXVIII French Ce grand Monarque qu'au mort succedera Donnera vie illicite lubrique Par nonchalance a tous concedera Qua la parfin faudra la loy Salique English The great Monarch that shall succeed to the great one Shall lead a Life unlawfull and lecherous By carelesness he shall give to all So that in Conclusion the Salique Law shall fail ANNOT. This hath a Relation to the precedetn Stanza therefore c. XXXIX French Du vray rameau de fleur de Lis issu Mis loge heritier d' Hetrurie Son sang antique de longue main tissu Fera Florence florir en l'Armoirie English Issued out of the true branch of the City He shall be set for Heir of Hetruria His ancient blood waved by a long while Shall cause Florence to flourish in the Scutcheon ANNOT. This is only in commendation of the Family of the Medicis and of their Alliance with the Crown of France for Catharine of Medicis wife to Henry II. was Queen of France when our Author lived XL. French Le sang Roial sera si tresmeslé Contraints seront Gaulois de l' Hesperie On attendra que terme soit coule Et que memoire de la voix soit perie English
blood His Forces shall be beaten back to the Forrest ANNOT. The difficulty lyes in the word Brothers which I suppose to be the United Provinces The rest is plain VIII French Ceux qui estoient en regne pour scavoir Au Royal change deviendront a pauvris Uns exilez sans appuy Or navoir Lettréz lettres ne seront a grand pris English Those that were in esteem for their learning Upon the change of a King shall become poor Some banished without help having no Gold Learned and learning shall not be much valued ANNOT. This Prophecie is clear enough and here the Author hath said nothing but what doth commonly happen IX French Aux Temples Saints seront faits grands scandales Comptez seront peur honneurs louanges D'un que lon grave d'Argent d'Or les Medals La fin sera en tourmens bien estranges English To the holy Temples shall be done great scandals That shall be accounted for honours and praises By one whose medals are graven in Gold and Silver The end of it shall be in very strange torments ANNOT. Here the Reader must understand that the Author was a Roman Catholick and therefore calleth Holy Temples the Churches of the Romish Religion which in the beginning of the Civil Wars in France were much abased by those of the Protestant Religion then called Huguenots whose chief was Henry King of Navarre who was the only man amongst the Protestant party that could have Money and Medals coined to his stamp as being King of Navarre But the last Verse of this Prophecie proved too true when upon St. Bartholomews day the 24 of August in the year 1572. the general Massacre of the Protestants was made through France X. French Un peu du temps les Temples des Couleurs De blanc noir des deux entremislée Rouges jaunes leur embleront les leurs Sang terre peste faim feu eau asâ—ollée English Within a little while the Temples of the Colours White and Black shall be intermixt Red and Yellow shall take away their Colours Blood earth plague famine fire water shall destroy them ANNOT. By the Temples of the Colours VVhite and Black I suppose he means that of Peace and of VVar by the Red and Yellow may be meant the Empire of the Sweads who shall be at variance together and by their long VVar shall bring the Plagues here mentioned as it came to paâ—s in the VVars of Germany between the Emperour and Gustavus Adolphus King of the Sweads XI French Les sept rameaux a trois seront reduits Les plus aisnez seront surprins par morts Fratricider les deux seront seduits Les Conjures en dormant seront morts English The seven branches shall be reduced to three The eldest shall be surprised by death Two shall be said to kill their Brothers The Conspirators shall be killed being asleep ANNOT. It is apparent that he speaks of seven Brethren that shall be reduced to three whereof the eldest son shall be surprised by death and two of the rest shall be said to have murdered their Brother the Conspirators shall afterwards be killed in their sleep XII French Dresser Copie pour monter a l'Empire Du Vatican le sang Royal tiendra Flamens Anglois Espagne aspire Contre l' Italie France contendra English To raise an Army for to ascend unto the Empire Of the Vatican the Royal blood shall endeavour Flemings English Spain shall aspire And shall contend against Italy and France ANNOT. This prediction signifies no more but that there shall be a great commotion among the Nations of Europe concerning the election of a Pope which is called here the Empire of the Vatican because the Vatican is the Popes Palace in Rome XIII French Un dubieux ne viendra loing du regne La plus grand part le voudra soustenir Un Capitole ne voudra point quil regne Sa grande Chaire ne pourra maintenir English A doubtful man shall not come far from the Reign The greatest part will uphold him A Capitol will not consent that he should Reign His great Chair he shall not be able to maintain ANNOT. What should that doubtful man be whom our Author doth mention here is not easie to be understood but it seemeth that it shall be some body pretending to the Popedom who shall have a great party for himself and yet for all that shall be excluded and not able to keep his Seat so that this Prophecie is but the second part of the foregoing for they have both a relation together The Capitol anciently was the Citadel of Rome and now is the place where the Courts of Judicature meet called Campidoglio XIV French Loing de sa Terre Roy perdra la Bataille Prompt eschapé poursuivy suivant pris Ignare pris soubs la dorée maille Soubs feint habit l'Ennemy surpris English Far from his Countrey the King shall loose a Battle Nimble escaped followed following taken Ignorantly taken under the gilded Coat of Mail Under a feigned habit the enemy taken ANNOT. This Prophecy was fulfilled in the year 1578. when Don Sebastian King of Portugal went into Affrica to help and succour Muley Hamet against Muley Maluc that had expelled him out of the Kingdom of Fez and Morocco and there fought that famous Battle of Alcasserquibir wherein his whole Army was routed and himself slain by the Moores and his body afterwards sold to the King of Spain for a 100000. Crowns XV. French Dessous la Tombe sera trouvé le Prince Qu'aura le pris par dessus Nuremberg L' Espagnol Roy en Capricorne mince Feinct trahy par le grand Untitemberg English Under the Tomb shall be found the Prince That shall have a price above Nuremberg That Spanish King in Capricorn shall be thine Deceived and betrayed by the great Vutitemberg ANNOT. VVe hear of no Prince that had that advantage upon Nuremberg but only Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden who took it The last two Verses signifie no more then that the King of Spain shall be wasted at the time when the Sun is in Capricorn XVI French Ce que ravy sera du jeune Milve Par les Normans de France Picardy Les noirs du Temple du lieu de Negrisilve Feront aux Berge feu de Lombardie English That which shall be taken from the young Kite By the Normans of France and Picardie The black ones of the Temple of the place called black Forrest Shall make a Rendezvouz and a fire in Lombardie ANNOT. The meaning is that what the Normans and those of Picardie shall save from the hand of a young conquering Prince the same shall be imployed in building a Temple in the black Forrest which is that part of the Forrest of Arden that lies near Bobemia and another part of it to build a House in Lombardie XVII French Apres les livres bruslez les Asiniers Contraints seront changer d'habits divers Les
carnem prophetabunt filii vestri siliae vestrae But such a Prophecy did proceed from the mouth of the Holy Ghost who was the Supreme and eternal Power which being come with that of the Coelestial bodies hath caused some of them to foretel great and wonderful things as for my part I challenge no such thing in this place God forbid I confess truly that all cometh from God for which I give him thanks honour and praise without having mixed any thing of that divination which proceedeth a Fato but only of that which proceedeth à Deo Natura and most of it joyned with the motion and course of the Coelestial Bodies inso much that seeing as in a burning Glass and through a Cloudy Vision the great and sad events the prodigious and calamitous accidents that shall befall the Worshippers first of God and secondly those that are Earthly propped up with a thousand other calamitous accidents which shall be known in course of time for God will take notice of the long barrenness of the great Dame who afterwards shall conceive two principal Children But being in danger she that shall be added to her by the temerity of age running a danger in the 18 and not able to go beyond the 36 shall leave behind her three females and he shall have two that never had any of the same father the differences between the three Brothers shall be such and then shall they be united and agreed insomuch that the three and four parts of Europe shall quake by the lesser in years shall the Christian Monarchy be upheld and augmented Sects shall rise and presently be put down again the Arabians shall be put back Kingdoms shall be united and new Laws made Concerning the other Children the first shall possess the furious Crowned Lions holding their Paws upon the Escutcheons The second well attended will go so deep among the Lions that the second way shall be open all trembling and furious going down to get upon the Pyrenaean Mountains The ancient Monarchy shall not be transferred the third innundation of humane blood shall happen and for a good while Mars shall not be in Lent And the Daughter shall be given for the preservation of the Church the Dominator of it falling into the Pagan Forces of the new unbelievers she shall have two Children one from faithfulness and the other from unfaithfulness for the confirmation of the Catholick Church and the other who to his confusion and late repentance shall go about to ruine her There shall be three Regions by the extreme differences of the leagues viz. the Roman the German and the Spanish who by a Military hand shall make divers Sects forsaking the 50 and 52 degrees of altitude and all those of remote Regions shall do homage to the Regions of Europe and of the North of 40 Degrees Altitude who by a vain fright shall quake after that those of the West South and East shall quake because of their power insomuch that what shall be done cannot be undone by Warlike power They shall be equal in Nature but much different in Faith After this the barren Dame of a greater power then the second shall be admitted by two people by the first obstinate that had power over the others by the second and by the third that shall extend his Circuit of the East of Europe as far as the Hungarians vanquished and overcome and by a Maritine Sail shall make his excursions into the Trinarrian and Adriatick Sea by his Mirmidons and Germany shall fall and the Barbarian Sect shall be wholly driven from among the Latines Then the great Empire of Antichrist shall begin in the Attila and Xerxes to come down with an innumerable multitude of people insomuch that the coming of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the 48 Degree shall transmigrate driving away the abomination of the Antichrist who made War against the Royal who shall be the great Vicar of I. C. and against his Church and his Kingdom per tempus in occasione temporis and before this shall precede a Solar Eclipse the most dark and obscure that was since the Creation of the World till the death and passion of I. C. and from him till then and it shall be in the Month of October when such a great Translation shall be made that every body will think that the weight of the Earth shall have lost its natural motion and be swallowed up in perpetual darkness In the Spring before and after this shall happen extraordinary changes mutations of Kingdoms and great Earth-quakes with pullulation of the new Babylons miserable daughter increased by the abomination of the first Holocaust and shall last only 73 years and 7 Months then from that Stock she that had been long time barren proceeding from the fifth Degree who shall renew all the Christian Church and then shall be a great Peace Union and Concord between one of the Children of the wandring and seperated foreheads by divers Kingdoms and such Peace shall be made that the Instigator and Promoter of Military function by diversity of Religions shall be tied to the bottom of the deep and the Kingdom of the Rabious who shall countefeit the wise shall be united And the Countreys Towns Cities and Provinces that had deserted their first ways to free themselves captivating themselves more deeply shall be secretly angry at their liberty and Religion lost and shall begin to strike from the left to turn to the right restoring the holiness beaten down long before with their former writing so that after the great Dog shall come forth the biggest Mastif who shall destroy all that was done formerly then Churches shall be built up again as before the Clergy shall be restored to its former state and shall begin to Whore and Luxuriate and to commit a Thousand Crimes And being near unto another desolation when she shall be in her higher and more sublime dignity there shall rise powers and Militaty hands who shall take away from her the two Swords and leave her only the Ensigns from which by the means of the crookedness that draweth them the people causing it to go straight and not willing to submit unto them by the end opposite to the sharp hand that toucheth the Ground they shall provoke till that a branch shall proceed from the barren which shall deliver the people of the World from that meek and voluntary slavery putting themselves under the protection of Mars depriving Jupiter of all his honours and dignities for the free City established and seated in another little Mesopotamia And the chief Governour shall be thrust out of the middle and set in the high place of the Air being ignorant of the conspiracy of the Conspirators with the second Thrasibulus who long before did manage this thing then shall the impurities and abominations be objected with great shame and made manifest to the darknes of the darkened light and shall cease towards the end of
the change of his Kingdom the chief men of the Church shall be put back from the love of God and many of them shall apostatise from the true faith and from the true Sects the middlemost of which by her worshippers be a little put into ruine the first wholly in all Europe and most part of Africa undone by the third by the means of the poor in Spirit who by madness elevated shall through libidinous luxury commit adultery The people will rise and maintain it and shall drive away those that did adhere to the Legislators and shall seem by the Kingdoms spoiled by the Eastern men that God the Creator hath loosed Satan from his Infernal Prison to cause to be born the great Dog and Doham who shall make so great and abominable a fraction in the Churches that the Red nor the White without Eyes and without Hands shall not judge of it and their power shall be taken a way from them Then shall be a greater persecution against the Church than ever was and in the mean time shall be so great a Plague that two parts of three in the world shall fail insomuch that no body shall be able to know the true owners of fields and houses and there shall happen a total desolation unto the Clergy and the Martial men shall usurpe what shall come back from the City of the Sun and from Molita and the Staechades Islands and the great Chain of that Port shall be open which taketh its denomination from a Sea Oxe and a new incursion shall be made through the Sea Coasts willing to deliver the Castulan Leap from the first Mahometan taking and the assaulting shall not altogether be in vain and that place where the habitation of Abraham was shall be assaulted by those who shall have a respect for the Jovials And that City of Achem shall be encompassed and assaulted on all sides by a great power of Armed men their Sea Forces shall be weakened by the Western men and to that Kingdom shall happen great desolation and the great Cities shall be depopulated and those that shall come in shall be comprehended within the vengeance of the wrath of God and the Sepulchre held in so great veneration shall remain a great while open to the universal Aspect of the Heavens Sun and Moon and the sacred place shall be converted into a Stable for small and great Cattle and put to prophane uses O what a calamitous affliction shall be then for women with Child and chiefly by the principal Easterly head being for the most part moved by the Northern and Westerly men vanquished and put to death beaten and all the rest put to flight and the Children he had by many women put in Prison then shall be fulfilled the Prophecy of the Kingly Prophet Ut andiret gemitus compeditorum ut solveret filios interemptorum what great oppression shall be made then upon the Princes and Governours of Kingdoms and especially of those that shall live Eastward and near the Sea and their Languages intermixed very sociably The Language of the Arabians and Latines by the African communication and all the Eastern Kings shall be driven away beaten and brought to nothing not altogether by the means of the strength of the Kings of the North and by the drawing near of our age by the means of three secretly united seeking for death by ambushes one against another And the renewing of the Triumvirate shall last seven years while the fame of such a sect shall be spread all the world over and the Sacrifice of the Holy and immaculate Host shall be upheld And then shall the Lords be two in number victorious in the North against the Eastern ones and there shall be such a great noise and Warlike tumult that all the East shall quake for fear of those two Brothers not Northern Brothers And because Sir by this discourse I put all things confusedly in these predictions as well concerning the event of them as for the account of the time which followeth which is not at all or very little conformable to that I have done before as well by Astronomical way as other of the sacred Scriptures which cannot erre I could have set down to every quatrain the time in which they shall happen but it would not please every body much less the interpretation of them till Sir your Majesty hath granted me full power so to do that my Calumniators may have nothing to say against me Nevertheless reckoning the years since the Creation of the World to the Birth of Noah have passed 1506. years and from the Birth of Noah to the perfect building of the Ark near the universal Flood have passed 600. years whither solary or lunary or mixed for my part according to the Scriptures I hold that they were solary And at the end of those 600. years Noah entered into the Ark to save himself from the Flood which Flood was universal upon the Earth and lasted a year and two months and from the end of the Flood to the birth of Abraham did pass the number of 295. years and from the birth of Abraham to that of Isaac did pass 100. years and from Isaac to Jacob 60. years and from the time that he went into Aegypt till he came out of it did pass 130. years and from the time that Jacob went into Aegypt till his posterity came out of it did pass 430. years and from the coming out of Aegypt to the building of Salomon's Temple in the fourth year of his Reign did pass 480. years and from the building of the Temple till Jesus Christ according to the supputation of the Chronographers did pass 490. years and so by this supputation which I have gathered out of the Holy Scriptures the whole cometh to about 4173. years eight Months more or less But since the time of I. C. hitherto I leave it because of the diversity of Opinions And having calculated these present Prophecies according to the order of the Chain which containeth the revolution and all by Astronomical Doctrine and according to my natural instinct and after some time and in it comprehending since the time that Saturn shall turn to come in on the 7 of the Month of April till the 25 of August Jupiter from the 14 of June to the 7 of October Mars from the 27 of April till 22 of June Venus from the 9 of April to the 22 of May Mercury from the 3 of February till the 24 of the same afterwards from the 1 of June till the 24 of the same and from the 25 of September till the 16 of October Saturn in Capricorn Jupiter in Aquarius Mars in Scorpio Venus in Pisces Mercury within a Month in Capricorn Aquarius in Pisces Luna in Aquarius the Dragons head in Libra the Tail opposite to her sign according to a Conjunction of Jupiter and Mercury with a quadrin Aspect of Mars to Mercury and the head of the Dragon shall be with a
Conjuction of Sol and Jupiter the year shall be peacefull without Eclipse and in the beginning of that year shall be a greater persecution against the Christian Church than ever was in Affrica and it shall last till the year 1792. at which time every body will think it a renovation of Age. After that the Roman people shall begin to stand upright again and to put away some obscure darknesses receiving some of its former light but not without great divisions and continual changes Venice after that with great strength and power shall lift up her Wings so high that she will not be much inferiour to the strength of the old Rome and in that time great Bizantine Sails joyned with the Ligustiques by the Northern help and power shall give some hinderance whereby those of Crete shall not keep their faith the Arches built by the antient Martial men will keep company together with Neptun's Waves In the Adriatick shall be a great discord what was united shall be parted asunder and what was before and is a great City will go near to becom a house including the Pempotan and the Mesopot amia of Europe to 45 and others to 41 42 and 37. And in that time and Countrey the Infernal power shall rise against the Church of I. C. with the power of the Enemies to his Law which shall be the second Antechrist who shall persecute the said Church and its Vicar by the means of the power of Temporal Kings who through their Ignorance shall be seduced by Tongues more sharp than any Sword in the hands of 2 mad man The said Reign of Antichrist shall not last but till the ending of him born by Age and of the other in the City of Plancus accompanied by the Elect of Modone Fulcy by Ferrara maintained by Adriatick Liguriens and the proximity of the great Trinacria and after that shall pass over the Mount Jovis The Gallique Ogmyon followed with such a number that even from afar off the Empire of the great Law shall be presented to him and then and after shall be profusedly spilled the blood of the Innocent by the Nocent raised on high then by great Floods the memory of those things contained by such Instruments shall receive an innumerable loss as also shall learning towards the North by the Divine Will Satan bound once more and an universal Peace shall be among men and the Church of I. C. shall be free from all tribulation although the Azosrains would fain mix among it the Honey of their pestilent seduction and this shall happen about the seventh Millinary so that the Sanctuary of I. C shall be no more trodden down by the unbelievers that shall come from the North the world being near to some conflagration although by my supputations in my Prophecies the course of the time goeth much further In the Epistle that within the late years I have dedicated to my Son Caesar Nostradamus I have openly enough declared some things without prognosticating But here Sir are comprehended many great and wonderful events which those that come after us shall see And during the said Astrological supputation conferred with the sacred Scripture the persecution of the Clergy shall have its beginning from the power of Northern Kings joyned with the Eastern ones that persecution shall last Eleven years and a little less at which time the chief Northern King shall fail which years being ended shall come in his united Southern one who shall yet more violently persecute the Clergy by the Apostatical seduction of one that shall have the absolute power over the Militant Church of God And the Holy people of God and keeper of his Law and all order of Religion shall be grievously persecuted and afflicted insomuch that the blood of the true Ecclesiastical men shall float all over and unto one of those horrid Kings this praise shall be given by his followers to have spilt more humane blood of the Innocent Clergy-men than any body can do Wine and the said King shall commit incredible crimes against the Church humane blood shall run through publick streets and Churches as water coming from an impetuous Rain and the next Rivers shall be red with blood and by another Sea fight the Sea shall be red insomuch that one King shall say to another Bellis rubuit navalibus aequor After that in the same year those that follow shall happen the most horrid Plague caused by the precedent famine and so great tribulations as ever did happen since the first foundation of the Christian Church through all the Latine Regions some marks of it remaining in some Countreys of Spain At that time the Northern King hearing the complaint of the people of his principal title shall raise up so great an Army and shall go through the straights of his last Ancestors and Progenitors that he will set up all again in their first state and the great Vicar of the Cope shall be restored in his former estate but desolate and altogether forsaken and then shall the Sancta sanctorum be destroyed by Paganism and the old and New Testament be thrust out and burnt after that shall Antechrist be the infernal Prince and once more for the last all the Kingdoms of Christendom and also of the unbelievers shall quake for the space of 25 years and there shall be more grievous Wars and Battles and Towns Cities Castles and other buildings shall be burnt desolate and destroyed with a great effusion of Vestal blood Married Women and Widows ravished sucking Children dashed against the Walls of the Towns and so many evils shall be committed by the means of the Infernal prince Satan that almost the universal world shall be undone and desolate and before these events many unusual Birds shall cry through the Air Huy Huy and a little while after shall vanish away And after that time shall have lasted a good while there shall be renewed a Kingdom of Saturn and Golden Age. God the Creator shall say hearing the affliction of his people Satan shall be put and tied in the bottom of the deep and there shall begin an universal peace between God and men and the Ecclesiastical power shall be in its greater force and Satan shall be left bound for the space of a thousand years and then shall be loosed again All these Figures are justly fitted by the sacred Scripture to the visible Coelestial things viz. Saturn Jupiter and Mars and others joyned with them as more at large may be seen in some of my Stanza's I would have calculated it more deeply and compared one with the other but seeing most excellent King that some stand ready to censure me I shall withdraw my Pen to its Nocturnal repose Multa etiam O Rex potentissime prâ—clara sane in brevi ventura sed omnia in hac tua Epistola inneâ—tere non possumus nec volumus sed ad intelligenda quedam facta horrida fata pauca libanda sunt quamvis tanta sit
thousands At the third resistance the Bridge shall be broken ANNOT. Agde is a Sea Town in France upon the Mediterranean Sea which is threatned here of three Galleys that shall come into the Harbour of it and shall bring with them infection and Plague and besides carry away thousands of Captives by which it seemeth that these should be Turkish Galleys till at last upon the third resistance of the Townsmen the Bridge shall be broken XXII French Gorfan Narbonne par le Sel advercir Tucham la Grace Perpignan trahie La ville rouge ny voudra consentir Par haute Voldrap Gris vie faillie English Gorsan Narbonne by the Salt shall give notice To Tucham the Grace Perpignan betrayed The rek Town will not give consent to it By high Woldrap Gray life ended ANNOT. This is another wherein my best skill faileth me for take away Narbonne which is a City of France in the Province of Langucdoc and Perpignan which is another in the County of Roussilon near Spain The rest are either barbarous words or nonsensical to me XXIII French Lettres trouvées de la Reyne les Coffres Point de subscrit sans aucun nom d'Autheur Par la police seront cachez les offres Qu'on ne scaura qui sera lamateur English Letters found in the Queens Coffers No superscription no name of the Author By policy shall be concealed the offers So that no body shall know who shall be the lover ANNOT. This needeth no great explication being pretty plain and foretelleth only that a Queens Trunks shall be opened wherein many love Letters shall be found without subscription with many great offers which by policy being suppressed or no notice taken of The lover was never known XXIV French Le Lieutenant a l'entrée l'huis Assommera le grand de Perpignan En se cuidant sauver a Montpertuis Sera deceu Bastard de Lusignan English The Lieutenant shall at the doors entry Knock down the great one of Perpignan And the Bastard of Lusignan shall be deceived Thinking to save himself at Montpertuis ANNOT. The words and the sense are clear though the meaning is hard to be understood XXV French Coeur de l'Amant ouvert d'amour furtive Dans le ruisseau sera ravir la Dame Le demy mal contrefaira laseive Le Pere a deux privera corps de l'Ame English The Lovers heart being by a stoln love Shall cause the Dame to be ravished in the Brook The lascivious shall counterfeit half a discontent The Father shall deprive the bodies of both of their souls ANNOT. This signifieth nothing but a Lover who meeting in or by a Brook his Mistress shall enjoy her for which she shall fain a little discontent as if she had been ravished against her will but her jealous Father not contented therewith shall kill them both which is an ordinary Italian trick XXVI French De Carones trouvez en Barcelonne Mys descouvers lieu terrouers ruine Le grand qui tient ne voudra Pampelone Par l'Abbaye de Montferrat bruine English The Carones fond in Barcelona Put discovered place soil and ruine The great that hold will not Pampelona By the Abbaye of Montferrat mist ANNOT. Barcelona is a Town of a Province in Spain called Catalonia Pampelona is the chief Town of the Kingdom of Navarre Montferrat is an Abbaye in the Mountains of Catalonia the rest is insignificant XXVII French La voye Auxelle l'un sur l'autre fornix Du muy de fer hors mis brave genest L'Escrit d'Empereur la Phoenix Veu en celuy ce qu'a nul autre nest English The way Auxelle one Arch upon another Being brave and gallant put out of the Iron vessel The writing of the Emperour the Phoenix In it shall be seen what no where else is ANNOT. I can find nothing in this worth interpretation XXVIII French Les Simulachres d'or d'argent enflez Qu'apres le rapt Lac au feu furent jettez Au descouvert estaints tous troublez Au Marbre escripts prescripts interjettez English The Images sweld with Gold and Silver Which after the rape were thrown into the Lake and fire Being discovered after the putting out of the fire Shall be written in Marble prescripts being intermixed ANNOT. It seemeth that this gold and silver Idols having been stoln were afterwards thrown into a Lake and a fire which fire being put out those Idols were found and the memorial engraven in Marble XXIX French Au quart pilier ou l'on sacre a Saturne Pat tremblant Terre Deluge fendu Soubs l'edifice Saturnin trouvée Urne D'or Capion ravy puis tost rendu English At the fourth Pillar where they sacrifice to Saturn Cloven by an Earth-quake and a Flood An Urne shall be found under that Saturnian building Full of Capion gold stoln and then restored ANNOT. This foretelleth that at the fourth Pillar of a Temple that was dedicated to Saturn which Pillar shall be split by an Earth-quake and a Flood there shall be found an Urne which is an Earthen Vessel wherein the ancient Romans used to keep the ashes of their dead friends full of gold that shall be carried away and then restored XXX French Dedans Tholose non loin de Beluzer Faisant un puis loing Palais d'espectacle Thresor trouvé un chacun ira vexer Et en deux locs tout aupres des Vesacle English Within Tholose not far from Beluzer Digging a Well for the Pallace of spectacle A treasure found that shall vex every one In two parcels in and near the Basacle ANNOT. Tholose is the chief City of Languedoc Beluzer is a private place within its precinct Spectacle is insignificant and is onely foisted in to Rime with Basacle which is a place in Tholose where there is aboundance of Water-mills that make a hideous and fearful noise XXXI French Premier grand fruit le prince de Pesquiere Mais puis viendra bien cruel malin Dedans Venise perdra sa glorie fiere Et mis a mal par plus joyve Celin English The first great fruit the Prince of Pesquiere But he shall become very cruel and malicious He shall loose his fierce pride in Venice And shall be put to evil by the younger Celin ANNOT. Pescaire is a Town in the Kingdom of Naples belonging to the noble Spanish Family of Avalos of which it seemeth one shall prove cruel and malicious but he shall be killed in Venice by one young Celin by which formerly and in other places the Author understandeth the Turk XXXII French Garde toy Roy Gaulois de ton Nepveu Qui fera tant que ton unique filz Sera meurtry a Venus faisant voeu Accompagné de nuit que trois six English Take heed O French King of thy Nephew Who shall cause that thine only Son Shall be murdered making a vow to Venus Accompanied with three and six ANNOT. This is a plain warning to a French King to beware of his Nephew who accompanied with nine others shall
great remorse ANNOT. These words are so plain that they need no interpretation LXXIV French En Terre neuve bien avant Roy entré Pendant subjects luy viendront faire accueil Sa parfidie aura tel rencontré Qu'aux Citadins lieu de feste recueil English A King being entered far into a new Countrey Whilst his Subjects shall come to welcom him His perfidiousness shall find such an encounter That to the Citizens it shall be instead of feast and Welcom ANNOT. The sense of this seemeth to be that a certain King being far got into a new conquered Countrey where he shall deal perfidiously with his Subjects that then he shall meet with such an accident as to his Citizens shall be instead of feast welcom LXXV French Le Pere fils seront meurtris ensemble Le Presecteur dedans son Pavillon La Mere a Tours du fils ventre aura enfle Cache verdure de fueilles papillon English The Father and Son shall be murdered together The Governour shall be so in his Tent At Tours the Mother shall be got with child by her son Hide the greenness with leaves Butter-flye ANNOT. There is nothing hard here but the last Verse whereby it is signified that after such an incest of the Mother with the Son in the City of Tours wich is a Town in France the fruit of it shall be secretly buryed and green Turfs laid upon the place and Leaves upon them to take away the knowledge of it LXXVI French Plus Macelin que Roy en Angleterre Lieu obscur ne par force aura l'Empire Lasche sans foy fans loy seignera Terre Son temps s'aproche si presque je souspire English More Macelin then King in England Born in obscure place by force shall reign Of loose disposition without faith without Law the ground shall bleed His time is drawing so near that I sight for it ANNOT. Macelin is a Butcher or cruel man from the Latine word Macellum which signifieth the Shambles it is without contradiction that by this Prophecy is plain concerning the late tyrant Cromwel and his unlawful Government LXXVII French L'Antechrist bien tost trois annichilez Vingt sept ans durera sa guerre Les Heretiques morts captifs exilez Sang corps humain eau rougie gresler Terre English By Antichrist three shall shortly be brought to nothing His War shall last seven and twenty years The Hereticks dead Prisoners banished Blood humane body water made red Eâ—rth hailed ANNOT. What he meaneth here by Antichrist is not easie to determine for he cannot mean the Pope himself being a Papist nor the great Antichrist whose Reign according to the Scripture shall last but three years and a half it is more likely then that this Stanza hath coherence with the precedent and that by it he meaneth Henry the VIII who for the space of about 27 years before he dyed did handle something roughly the Clergy and Clergy-men LXXVIII French Un Bragamas avcc la langue torte Viendra des dieux rompre le Sanctuaire Aux Heretiques il ouvrira la porte En suscitant l'Eglise Militaire English A Bragamas with his crooked Tongue Shall come and break the Gods Sanctuary He shall open the Gates unto Hereticks By raising the Militant Church ANNOT. Bragamas is the same thing that we call now Bragadocio By the Gods Sanctuary he meaneth the Temples of the Romish Religion who are reputed Sanctuaries and are full of Images which they worship as Gods praying and offering Incense to them LXXIX French Qui par fer pere perdra nay de Nonnaire De Gorgon sur la fin sera sang perferant En Terre estrange fera si tout de taire Qu'il bruslera luy mesme son entant English He that by Iron shall destroy his Father born in Nonnaire Shall in the end carry the blood of Gorgon Shall in a strange Countrey make all so silent That he shall burn himself and his intent ANNOT. Nonnaire and Gorgon are two barbarous words as for the sense of that and the rest he that shall be able to read the words shall be as wise as my self LXXX French Des innocens le sang de Vefue Vierge Tant de maux faits par moiens ce grand Roge Saints simulachres trempez en ardant cierge De frayeur crainte ne verra nul que boge English The blood of the innocent Widow and Virgin So many evils committed by the means of that great Rogue Holy Images dipt in burning wax Candles For fear no body shall be seen to stir ANNOT. What he meaneth by the great Rogue is not obvious but the main drift of this Stanza seemeth to be to foretel the abuses that should be offered to the Popish Images by the Protestant party as it was done in the time of the Civil VVars of France and a little while after our Author had written his Prophecies By the great Rogue he meaneth some chief Commander of the Protestant party that were in those days as the Prince of Conde the Admiral of Castilon or his Brother Dandelot LXXXI French Le neuf Empire en desolation Sera changé du Pole Aquilonaire De la Sicile viendra l'emotion Troubler l'Emprise a Philip tributaire English The new Empire in desolation Shall be changed from the Northern Pole The commotion shall come from Sicily To trouble the undertaking tributary to Philip. ANNOT. This threatneth the Empire that now is in Germany of a great desolation and to be removed from its place and threatneth also the Island of Sicily of a fearful commotion which shall trouble the undertakings of Philip that is King of Spain because they usually are called by that name LXXXII French Ronge long sec faisant du bon valet A la par fin n'aura que son congie Poignant poison Lettres au colet Sera saisy eschapé en dangié English Long gnawer dry cringing and fawning In conclusion shall have nothing but leave to be gone Piercing poison and Letters in his Collar Shall be seised escape and in danger ANNOT. The words of this are easie to be understood but not who should be that man to whom he giveth these four famous Epithetes of Long-gnawer dry cringing and fawning LXXXIII French Le plus grand voile hors du port de Zara Pres de Bizance fera son entreprise D'Ennemy perte l'amy ne sera Le tiers a deux fera grand pille prise English The greatest Sail out of the Port of Zara Near Bizance shall make his undertaking There shall be no loss of foes or friends The third shall make a great pillage upon the two ANNOT. By Zara I suppose that the Venetians are meant who have a very strong Town of that name situated in Dalmatia Bizance is Constantinople as we have said before now whether this Prophecy was fulfilled when the Venetians took the Island of Tenedos some 20 years ago which is not far from Constantinople or whether it
'l give him again his salary ANNOT. The two first Verses are plain the third signifieth that these fearful ones being come out of their Galleys part of them shall be murdered and among them the Captain a renouncer of his Baptism or Renegado and the rest afterwards by an Ambuscado shall requite in the same Coin those that had used them so LXXX French Le Duc voudra les siens exterminer Envoyera les plus forts lieux estranges Par tyrannie Bize Luc ruiner Puis les Barbares sans Vin feront Vendanges English The Duke shall endeavour to exterminate his own And shall send away the strongest of them into remote places He shall also ruinate Bize and Luc The Barbarians shall make Vintage without Wine ANNOT. There is a great fault in the impression of the French Copy in this Stanza which maketh the sense altogether inexplicable it must then in stead of Bize and Luc be written Pise and Lucques which are two Towns in Italy near the Duke of Florence's Dominions one of these Towns viz. Pisa he hath taken already and from a Common-Wealth made it subject to himself the other though several times attempted by him hath preserved its liberty to this day The last Verse signifieth that after this is come to pass the Barbarians that is the Florentins shall make Vintage without Wine that is shall plunder and spoil at their pleasure LXXXI French Le Roy rusé entendra ses Embusches De trois quartiers Ennemis assaillir Un nombre estrange Larmes de coqueluches Viendra Lamprin du traducteur faillir English The crafty King shall hear of his Ambuscadoes And shall assail his Enemies on three sides A strange number of Friers mens Tears Shall cause Lamprin to desert the Traitor ANNOT. The only difficulty here is to know who that Lamprin should be who shall be diverted from following a Traitor which he meaneth here by the French word Traducteur and shall be diverted from it by the Tears of Fryers which are meant here by the ancient French word Coqueluches which signifieth a Fryers Cool or Capuchon LXXXII French Par le Deluge pestilence forte La Cité grande de long temps Assregée La Sentinelle Garde de main morte Subite prinse mais de nul outragée English The great City having been long Besieged By an Innundation and violent Plague The Sentinal and Watch being surprised Shall be taken on a sudden but hurt by no body ANNOT. This is very plain if by the great City you understand Paris who is subject to frequent Innundations and Plagues LXXXIII French Sol Vingt de Taurus si fort terre tremblera Le grand Theatre remply ruinera L'Air Ciel Terre obscurcir troubler Lors l'Infidele Dieu Saints voguera English The Sun being in the 20th of Taurus the Earth shall so quake That it shall fill and ruinate the great Theater The Air the Heaven the Earth shall be so darkened and troubled That the unbelievers shall call upon God and his Saints ANNOT. This famous Earth-quake having not yet happened in Europe it is like to happen within few years for our Authors Prophecies by his own confession do not extend further than the year 1700. LXXXIV French Roy exposé parfaira l'Hecatombe Apres avoir trouve son Origine Torrent ouvrir de Marbre Plomb la Tombe D'un grand Romain d'Enseigne Medusin English The King exposed shall fulfill the Hecatombe After he hath found out his Offspring A Torrent shall open the Sepulcher made of Marble and Lead Of a great Roman with a Medusean Ensign ANNOT. This Prophecie is divided into two parts The first two Verses are concerning a King who shall perform the Funeral Rites and Ceremonies to his Parents when he is come to the knowledge of them having been exposed for lost before The two last Verses are concerning an ancient Sepulcher of a Roman that shall be digged up and found out by a Torrent and the Arms of the said Roman shall be something like the head of Medusa whose Hairs were Serpents and was so fearful to behold that by seeing of it the beholders were turned into stones LXXXV French Passer Guenne Languedoc le Rhosne D' Agen tenants de Marmande la Reole D'Ouvrir par foy parroy Phocen tiendra son Throne Conflict aupres Saint Pol de Manseole English They shall pass over Gascony Languedoc and the Rhosne From Agen keeping Marmande and the Reole To open the Wall by Faith Phocen shall keep his Throne A Battle shall be by St. Paul of Manseole ANNOT. The whole of this Prophecie signifieth no more but that an Army shall pass through all these places and that at last there will be a Battle sought by that place called St. Paul de Manseole LXXXVI French Du Bourg la Reyne parviendront droit a Chartres Et feront pres du Pont Antony pose Sept pour la paix cauteleux comme Martres Feront entrée d'Armée a Paris clause English From Bourg la Reyne they shall come straight to Chartres And shall make a stand near Pont Antony Seven for Peace as crafty as Martres They shall enter in Paris besieged with an Army ANNOT. Bourg lai Reyne is a little town within six Miles of Paris Chartres is the chief City of the Province Beausse Pont Antony is a little Town between them both so that the sense of the whole is this that seaven men crafty like Martres which are those Russia Foxes that afford the richest Furres called Martres Zibellines shall go from Bourg la Reyne to Chartres making a little stay at Pont Antony and then shall come with an Army into Paris which shall be besieged at that time I believe this Prophecy is come to pass already in the time of the Civil VVars of France but for want of the History I could not quote the time LXXXVII French Par la Forest du Touphon essartée Par Hermitage sera pose le Temple Le Duc d' Estampes par sa ruse inventée Du Montlehery Prelat donra exemple English By the Forrest Touphon cut off By the Hermitage shall the Temple be The Duke of Estampes by his inventea trick Shall give example to the Prelat of Montlehery ANNOT. Here is a fault in the Impression for instead of Touphon it must be written Torsou which is a Forrest some 30 Miles from Paris towards Beausse near which is seated the Town of Montlebery in the the said Forrest is seated an Hermitage and not far from thence the City of Estampes which carryeth the Title of Dutchy so that the sense of it is this that this Forrest being cut off as it is now for the most part in the place where that Hermitage was shall be built a Church or Convent as it is now Coelestins friars called Marcoussy and that the said Hermitage shall be taken from the jurisdiction of the Town of Montlehery under which it was before LXXXVIII French Calais Arras secours a
sang glaive par estrenes Feu trembler Terre eau malheureuse nolte English I bewail Nice Monaco Pisa Genoa Savona Sienna Capoua Modena Maltha Upon them blood and sword for a new years-gift Fire Earth-quake water unhappy nolte ANNOT. All these Cities are situated by the Mediterranean Sea and most of them upon that part of it which is called the River of Genoa and are threatned here by all the plagues above mentioned as for the word nolte it is a barbarous one forced here to make up the Rime in French LXI French Betta Vienne Comorre Sacarbance Voudront livrer aux Barbares Pannone Par picque et feu enorme violence Les conjurez d'escouverts par Matrone English Betta Vienna Comorre Sacarbance Shall endeavour to deliver Pannone to the Barbarians By Pike and fire extraordinary violence The Conspirators discovered by a Matron ANNOT. It seemeth that there will be a conspiracy of some men out of all the above mentioned Cities to surrender Hungary which in Latine is called Pannonia to the great Turk but that conspiracy shall be discovered by a Matron that is a grave ancient Woman LXII French Pres de Sorbin pour assaillir Hongrie L'Heraut de Bude le viendra advertir Chef Bizantin Sallon de Sclavonie A Loy d' Arabes les viendra convertir English Near Sorbin to invade Hungary The Herald of Buda shall come to give them notice of it Chief Bizantin Sallon of Sclavonia Shall come to turn them to the Arabian Religion ANNOT. This seemeth to have a relation to the precedent and that near that place he calleth Sorbin preparations shall be made to Invade Hungary but they shall have notice of it by some body of Buda He that is called here Chief Bizantin is the great Turk or his grand Vizir who hath his abode in Constaninople anciently called Bizantium LXIII French Cydron Ragusa la Cité au Sainct Hieron Reverdira le medicant secours Mort fils de Roy part mort de deux Heron L' Arabe Hongrie feront un mesme cours English Cydron Raguse the City of Saint Hieron Shall make green again the Physical help The Kings Son dead by the death of two Herons Arabia and Hungary shall go the same way ANNOT. The meaning of this is that when those three Cities named in the first Verse shall have need of succours and that a Kings Son shall die in flying two Herons then shall Arabia and Hungary be under the same Master LXIV French Pleure Milan pleure Lucques Florence Que ton grand Duc sur le Char montera Changer le Siege pres de Venise s'advance Lors que Colonne a Rome changera English Weep Milan weep Lucques and Florence When the great Duke shall go upon the Chariot To change the Siege near Venice he goeth about When Colonne shall change at Rome ANNOT. This Prophecy seemeth to portend the change of the See of Rome in some place near to Venice and this is to happen when the great Duke of Tuscany shall ascend upon a Triumphant Chariot and that the House of Colonne which is the more powerfull in Rome shall take his part LXV French O vaste Rome ta ruine s'aproche Non de tes Murs de ton sang substance L'aspre par lettres sera si horrible coche Fer pointu mis a tous jusques au manche English O great Rome thy ruine draweth near Not of thy Walls of thy blood and substance The sharp by Letters shall make so horrid a notch Sharp Iron thrust in all to the hast ANNOT. This is a confirmation of the foregoing Prophecy by which it is said that the destruction of Rome shall not be in her Walls blood or substance but onely by Letters or Doctrine that shall put quite down the Roman Religion LXVI French Le Chef de Londres par Regne l' Americh L'Isle d' Escosse tempiera par gelée Roy Reb. auront un si faux Antechrist Que les mettra tretous dans la meslée English The Chief of London by Reign of America The Island of Scotland shall catch thee by a frost King and Reb. shall have so false an Antichrist As will put them altogether by the ears ANNOT. I conceive this Prophecy can be appropriated to no body better then Oli. Cromwel who is called here the Chief of London by Reign of America that is by Reign of confusion whose projects and treasons were all brought to nought by the victorious Mars of the ever renowned General Monck who came with his Army from Scotland to London in the VVinter time he is called also a false Antichrist because he was an enemy to King and Reb. that is Respublica or Common-wealth LXVII French Le tremblement si fort au mois de May Saturne Caper Jupiter Mercure au Boeuf Venus aussy Cancer Mars en Nonnay Tombera gresle lors gresse qu'un oeuf English The Earth-quake shall be so great in the month of May Saturn Caper Jupiter Mercury in the Bull Venus also Cancer Mars in Nonnay Then shall fall Hail bigger then an Egge ANNOT. The meaning is that when all these Coelestial bodies shall be so disposed that there will be a fearful Earth-quake and Hail LXVIII French L'Armée de Mer devant Cité tiendra Puis partira sans faire longue allée Citoyens grande proye en Terre prendra Retourner classe reprendre grand emblée English The Fleet shall stand before the City Then shall go away for a little while And then shall take a great troop of Citizens on Land Fleet shall come back and recover a great deal ANNOT. It seemeth here he speaketh of two Fleets one of which shall stand a little while before a Town and carry a great many Citizens away but that the other Fleet shall come in the mean time and redeem them LXIX French Le fait luysant de neuf vieux eslevé Seront si grands par Midy Aquilon De sa soeur propre grandes alles levé Fuyant meurdry au buisson d' Ambellon English The bright actions of new old exalted Shall be so great through the South and North By his own Sister great forces shall be raised Running away he shall be murdered near the bush of Ambellon ANNOT. The question here is whether this neuf vieux in French or new old in English be the proper name of a man or be a Metaphor to express a young man of an ancient Family when the Reader hath satisfied himself upon that the rest is easie enough LXX French L'oeil par objet fera telle excroissance Tant ardente que tombera la Neige Champ arrousé viendra en decroissance Que le Primat succombera a Rhege English The eye by the object shall make such an excressency Because so much and so burning shall fall the Snow The Field watered shall come to decay Insomuch that the Primat shall fall down at Rhege ANNOT. All this is nothing but an extraordinary great Snow that shall fall about Rhegio a
that the Europeans shall be fed no more with Manna as the Jews were in the Desert but shall pass to the Land of Promise that is of peace and quietness C. French Le grand Empire sera par l' Angleterre Le Pempotan des ans plus de trois cens Grandes Copies passer par Mer Terre Les Lusitains n'en seront pas contens English The great Empire shall be in England The Pempotan for more then three hundred years Great Armies shall pass through Sea and Land The Portugueses shall not be contented therewith ANNOT. This is a favourable one for England for by it the Empire or the greatest Dominion of Europe is promised to it for the space of above three hundred years at which the Portugueses or Spaniards shall much repine THE PROPHECIES OF Michael Nostradamus CENTURY XI IX French MEysinier Manthi le tiers qui viendra Peste nouveau insult enclos troubler Aix les lieux fureur dedans mordra Puis les Phocens viendront leur mal doubler English Meysinier Manthi and the third that shall come Plague and new attempt shall trouble them enclosed The fury of it shall bite in Aix and the places there about Then they of Phocens shall come and double their misery ANNOT. These are names of particular persons that are here threatned of the Plague as also the City of Aix Capital of Province and the Countrey about it and after that the City of Marseilles named here Phocens because they are a Colony of the old Phocenses in Greece XCVII French Par Ville Franche Mascon en desarroy Dans les Fagots seront Soldats cachez Changer de temps en prime pour le Roy Par de Chalon Moulins tous hachez English By Ville Franche Mascon shall be put in disorder In the Faggots shall Souldiers be hidden The time shall change in prime for the King By Chalon and Moulins they shall be all hewed to pieces ANNOT. Ville Franche is a Town five Leagues from Lion and Mascon another about the same distance from Ville Franche and Chalon from Mascon and Moulins from Chalon The meaning of it is this that there shall be an attempt from Ville Franche upon Mascon by Souldiers hidden in Faggots that shall be cut off by the succours of those Chaâ—ons and Moulins which like did happen in the time of the Civil Wars in France between the King and the League when the Towns stood one against another but because I can find nothing of it in the History I suspend my further judgement therein THE PROPHECIES OF Michael Nostradamus CENTURY XII V. French FEu flamme faim furt farouche fumée Fera faillir froissant fort foy faucher Fils de Deité toute Provence humée Chasse de Regne enragé sans crocher English Fire flame hunger theft wild smoak Shall cause to fail brusing hard to move Faith Son of God! all Provence swallowed up Driven from the Kingdom raging mad without spitting ANNOT. The curiosity of the Author in striving to begin all his words in the two first Verses hath made the sense of this Stanza so obscure that I believe no body ever did or shall truely understand it all what can be gathered out of it is great threatning of several calamities that were to happen upon Provence his native Countrey as it did a little while after his death by the Civil Wars for Religion XXIV French Le grand secours venu de la Guyenne S'arrestera tout aupres de Poitiers Lion rendu par Montluel en Vienne Et saccagez par tous gens de Mestiers English The great succours that came from Gascony Shall stop hard by Poitiers Lion surrendred by Montluel and Vienna And ransacked by all kinds of Tradesmen ANNOT. The words and sense of this are plain XXXVI French Assault farouche en Cypre se prepare La larme a l'oeil de ta ruine proche Bizance Classe Morisque si grand tare Deux differens le grand vast par la Roche English A cruel assault is preparing in Cyprus Tears in my eye thou art near thy ruine The Fleet of Constantinople and the Morick so great damage Two differents the great wast shall be by the Rock ANNOT. A cruel Assault is preparing signifies the shortness of the time in which it was to happen for our Author Prophecied 1555. and Cyprus was taken by the Turks in the Month of August 1571. Selymus the II. fifth Emperour of the Turks where the perfidiousness of the Bassa Mustapha that Besieged it is remarkable for having the Town delivered him upon Articles First that the Inhabitants of the City yet alive should enjoy their lives liberty and goods with free exercise of Christian Religion that the Governour Bragadinus with the rest of the Captains and Souldiers might in safty depart with Bag and Baggage and at their departure take with them five pieces of Ordinance and three Horses which soever it should please them to make choise of and that the Turks should safely conduct them into Crete finding them both Victual and Shipping yet all these matters agreed upon and commenced into Writting as also by solemn Oaths on both side confirmed the prefidious Basla nevertheless caused Bragadinus to have his Ears cut off then caused him to be set in a Chair and his skin to be flain off from him quick his head to be cut from his dead body and upon the point of a Spear to be set upon a high place his skin also stuffed with Chaff he caused to be hanged up at the Yards Arm and so to be carried about IV. French Deux corps un chef champs divisez en deux Et puis respondre a quattre non ouys Petits pour grands a pertius mal pour eux Tour d' Aigues foudre pire pour Eussovis English Two bodies one head fields divided into two And then answer to four unheard ones Small for great ones open evil for them The Tower of Aigues beaten by Lightning worse for Eussovis ANNOT. Out of this crabbid Stanza we shall pick what we can and leave the rest to the judgment of the judicious Reader First The two bodies one head may be understood either a Monster that was so as it did happen once in Italy as Pareus witnesseth or of the union of the two Kingdoms of France and Navarre under Henry the IV. or of England and Scotland under King James The Tower of Aiguemortes was strucken with the Lightning a while after our Author had put out his Prophecies V. French Tristes Conseils desloiaux cauteleux Aduis meschant la loy sera trahie Le peuple esmeu farouche querelleux Tant Bourg que Ville toute le paix haie English Sad Councels unfaithful malicious Ill advice the Law shall be betrayed The people shall be moved wild quarrelsome Both in Countrey and City the peace shall be hated ANNOT. This is plain VI. French Roy contre Roy le Duc contre Prince Haine
beseeching the King to do him justice of those who went about to oppress him with unsufferable calumnies or to permit him to do himself reason The King carried him to the Tennis-court where the Duke took upon him to order the match and said that the Duke of Espernon and himself would hold it against the King and the Earl of Soisson the Duke of Espernon answered presently you play well but you do not make your matches well which was observed by the King and the standers by Supper time being come he did sup at the Table of the great Master to repare the fault he had done in the morning Every one did perceive that he was not contented for he eat little or nothing and no body spoke to him every one holding him already for a cast-away The King in the mean while was walking in his Chamber meditating some great resolution and he was heard to say these words be must either bow or break That evening past away so quietly that many thought it would be a Thunder with much noise and little hurt The King commanded the Earl of Soissons to go to the Duke of Biron and to do his best to break the hardness of his heart and to draw the truth out of him he went and intreated him to satisfie the King in what he desired to know from him and to be afraid of the Kings displeasure and indignation The Duke of Biron for answer told him that the King could not complain but of the good services he had done to him and that he himself had great occasion to complain of the King who mistrusted him after so many trials and experiments of his faithfulness and that he should never have more of him then he had at his first coming the Earl of Soissons seeing his obstinacy left him The next day early the King walking in the little Garden sent for the Duke of Biron and spoke to him a great while thinking to overcome his obstinacy and to give him means to escape the danger he was running into he was seen a great while with his Hat off his eyes lifted up to Heaven smiting his breast and making great protestations to uphold his innocency there appeared then in the Kings face a great deal of anger and in that of the Duke of Biron a great deal of fire and violence all his words were nothing but threatnings lightnings ruines and Hell against those that had spoken ill of him from thence he went to dinner and met with a man who brought him a Letter to advise him to look to himself he shewed it to the Captain of his Guards and made slight of it and said he would be beholding to his valour for his life and not to a flight all the afternoon the King stayed in the Gallery and spoke four hours to the Lord of la Curée the Queen being present and speaking never a word the King was in a great perplexity of mind before he could resolve himself The Lords of Vileroy Sillery and Geure were seen often to go to and fro which made some suspect that it was to begin by the execution in so great a crime but the King was against that such proceedings had been blamed in his Predecessor he would have every body to know that he had authority and power enough to exterminate his enemies according to the Laws The resolution was taken to have him arrested and also the Earl of Auvergne the King would not have them to be taken in the Castle but in their own Lodgings the Duke of Biron who was in some suspicion of it and had prepared himself to what he could neither prevent nor hinder did imagine that there was no fear of any thing in the Kings Chamber and that all the danger should be at the going out and therefore by time had provided himself with a short Sword with which he promised to make himself room through all dangers They represented to the King that if he were Arrested any where but in the Castle it could not be done without bloodshed and that it was no matter where the Lyon was taken so that profit might arise of his prize It was perceived that in the same Gallery the King sent for Vitry and Pralin two Captains of his Guards and gave them the order he would have to be observed for the execution of his commands and then called for his Supper The Duke of Biron was at supper in the Lord Montignys Lodging where he spoke more highly and bravely then ever of his Deserts and of the friends he had made lately in Switzerland then began to fall upon the praises of the late King of Spain extolling his Piety Justice and liberality Montigny stopt him saying that the greatest commendation that could be given to his memory was that he had put his own Son to death for endeavouring to trouble his Estate this word stopt those of the Duke of Biron who answered only with his eyes and thought upon it with some amazement After supper the Earl of Auvergne and the Duke of Biron came to the King who was walking in the Garden the King making an end of his walk did invite the Duke of Biron to play at Cards they went into the Queens Chambâ—r the Earl of Auvergne passing by the Duke of Biron told him softly we are undone the Game begun at the primara the Queen was one of the Gamsters the Duke of Biron another and two more The King went into his Closet divided between two contrary passions the love he had formerly for the Duke of Biron the knowledge he had of his valour and the remembrance of his services excluded all thoughts of his Justice on the other side the fear of troubles in his Estate the horâ—id effects of so unnatural a conspiracy did accuse his Clemency of cruelty if he went about to prefer the particular good to the publick he prayed to God to assist him with his Holy Spirit to appease the troubles of his soul and to strengthten him with a Holy resolution that he might do what was for the good of his people upon whom he Reigned by his only Grace his prayer being ended all the difficulties that troubled his soul vanished away there remained only a firm resolution to put the Duke into the hands of Justice if he could not draw the truth out of him the Game went on still the King took sometimes the Queens Cards expecting the appointed time The Earl of Auvergne was gone to his Lodging the King sent for him and walked in the Chamber while the Duke thought upon nothing but his play De Varennes Lieutenant of his Troop faining to take up his Cloak whispered him softly that he was undone this word did trouble him so much that he neglected his play and oversaw himself the Queen gave him notice of it the King did bid them to give over playing and commanded every one to retire he went into his Closet and took the Duke of Biron
hear him as long as he would speak with so much patience that never a man had the like audience The Prisoner spoke so much that his last reasons were found contrary to his first his allegations did not shew his Innocency for the Embassadors themselves which he took for Witnesses of his carryage in Switzerland did report many words of his which shewed his anger and passion Besides the King had not given his word that he might come in safety and those Letters which he alleadged for his justification did prove the continuation of his treacherous designs seeing that he had sent la Fin and Hebert to Turin and Milan since the pardon He could not then expect but Justice in a case where neither passion nor favour could alter Judgment Nevertheless he shewed himself much satisfied with his answers and therefore being come back again to the Bastille he passed the rest of that day and the two next to relate unto his Guards the questions of the Court and his answers therereunto counterfeiting the gesture and the words which he Imagined the Chancellor had spoken after his going away though that grave and venerable old man neither said nor did any thing but what was becoming to his Age and quality having shewed himself as full of compassion as the prisoner was of his vanity for when he was nearer to death he thought less upon it and thinking himself the only man capable of commanding an Army he found some fault in those that were thought capable of it saying that one was unhappy in his undertakings the other was not respected by the Souldiers such a one was a brave man but he wanted experience and another that hath both was a Potestant To conclude he did so please himself with his own praise and deserts that he thought no body could come near him and that he was so useful to the Kingdom that it would be a great Crime to think to undo him He had spoken so long the 27 of the Month that there was no time left to gather the Voices The Chancellor therefore went into the Palace the 29 following to gather the Voices of the Judges Fleury the reporter of the Proces did conform his opinion to the conclusions of the Kings Attorney all the rest agreed to it either by Words or by Signs and all the proofs necessary for the verification of a Crime meeting in this case as his Answers Confessions Writings Letters Instructions and Evidence of Witnesses not reproached It was found that the unnatural Conspiracy against the State the detestable attempt upon the Kings Person makes him guilty of high Treason in the first and second degree He confesseth he had evil intentions it is enough the Laws do punish the Councels the resolutions and the effects for if the Traitor be not prevented time may give him the opportunity to accomplish his Design and Will and the Will of a Subject in point of State doth depend immediately upon that of the Prince He sayeth moreover that without the Kings Mercy he is undone and that if he would have put in Execution the ill designs that were propounded to him against his Majesty he should have been gone long ago Did he ever give notice of them to the King or to any body else If the Prisoner had brought to pass his intent we might have said farewell State farewell Justice it is too late to believe the Conspiracy against Princes when they are murdered by the Conspirators He hath well served the King it is true but his Offices and Dignities did call him to that Duty he hath had notable rewards for it and from the time that he hath shewed himself so unfaithfull he hath diminished the lustre of his deserts His deserts had made him capable of the first dignities of the Kingdom but the merit of them is vanished away by the greatness of his Crime And what is the State beholding to him if after he hath contributed so much for its restauration he goeth about to turn up side down the Foundation of it and to betray it to the Enemies It is nothing to begin well unless you end well the actions are judged by the end Those that have deserved best of the States are the most severely punished when they fall into Sedition and Rebellion There is many sheets of Paper in the Hands of the Court containing in them one hundred advices given to the Enemy the least of which is capable to make him guilty The Prisoners quality is not considerable in this case Justice is blind to all distinctions and rather considereth the offence according to the quality of the offender Crimes of high Treason are not considered by things past but by things present and that are to come we must not put in an account what he hath done but what he had a mind to do The quality of a Duke and Peer of France of Knight of the Kings Order of Marshal doth not exempt him from the Law and from being judged as an Enemy to the State and to the Majesty of the Prince seeing he would have troubled the State and attempted upon the Kings person Who in France besides is more obliged to the King the greater then is the Obligation the greater the ingratitude God forbid that the respect of the quality should stop the course of Justice a Limb must be cut off to save all the body But his offence hath been forgiven The pardon cannot extend but to the things that are confessed but he acknowledgeth himself that he hath not told all therefore he hath confessed as little as he could his onw confessions Witness he only asked forgiveness that he might continue his Crimes with more security Besides he would not acknowledge his fault to the King for all the King promised to forgive him and lately he told the Court he did not believe that la Fin had revealed what was secret between them and thought he would have kept his word which he had confirmed with so many Oaths and that if he had doubted of it he would have cast himself at his Majesties Feet as readily as he and asked him forgiveness It followeth then that there was some thing left behind that was not confessed Thus he accuseth himself thinking to excuse his fault besides he mistaketh himself thinking to persuade the Court that since the pardon he hath done nothing amiss for the Pardon was in January 1600. and here be Letters of September last by which he recalleth la Fin telleth him he will think no more upon the Vanities that were past since God was pleased to have given the King a Dolphin It is apparent then that he hath employed la Fin at least since the Pardon till the birth of the Dolphin and la Fin maintaineth that there was a note quite to the contrary and that they did continue their intelligences and practises unknown to the King That the Duke did recal him fearing he should discover the Conspiracy when a man
the Duke of Aiguillon and Earl of Sommerive his Children he likewise intreated Arnaut Secretary to the Marquess of Rhosny to remember his last commendations to his Master and desire him to remember not so much him that went to die as his Brethren whom he left behind that he had him in opinion of a good and usefull servant to the King and repented much he had not believed his Councel About three of the Clock the Chancellor and the first President went up again into the Chappel and finding him in a good disposition did fortifie his resolution by their discourses and desiring to know more particularities from his own mouth sent all the standers by away except the Divines and the Recorder They did exhort him to consider that the days of man are limited that the end of his days depended from the Providence of the Almighty who would take him out of this world before some great and long misery should make him weary of it He answered no no my Lords do not trouble you about comforting me and strengthning me against the fear of death I have not been afraid of it these 20 years you have given me 40 days to study it but I could not believe that having not been in the power of my Enemies to take away my life I should be so miserable as to loose it by the consent of my friends having said this they left him and took their leaves of him with Tears in their Eyes he would not suffer them to depart till they had received a new Protastation of his that he never had attempted any thing against the King Swearing that if he would have done it the King should not have been alive three years ago As they were going out of the Bastille with Sillery he sent the Knight of the Watch to intreat the Chancellor that his Body might be buried at Eiron in the Sepulchre of his Ancestors and that he would desire the King to give to his younger Brother some Office in the house of the Dolphin and shewing by his Countenance Carryage and Words to care as little for death as one that is a great way from it gave cause to suspect that he was not out of hope to obtain his pardon from the King o 〈…〉 to escape by some extraordinary means The Divines did exhort him to keep nothing back of what might serve for the discharging of his Conscience and to consider that they could give him absolut 〈…〉 on for no more than what he did confess Although said he the King causeth me to die unjustly nevertheless I have served him with so much affection and obedience and I have near my death so much good will and affection for him that if I knew any thing against his Person or State I would tell it freely and upon that whispered some things to his Confessors which Voisin did presently write Being about five of the Clock Baranton was sent to tell him it was time to go let us go said he seeing I must die and desired he would charge his Brothers from him to remain faithful to the King and not to go to Court till time had blotted or at least le 〈…〉 ened the shame of his death He kneeled before the Altar and having ended his Prayer he desired the Company to pray for him Coming out of the Chappel he met the Executioner who offered to follow him and he thinking it was to bind him keep off said he and do not touch me till it be time I shall go willingly to die without troubling any body but it shall never be said that I am dead like a Slave or a Thief and swore by God that if he came near him he would strangle him The Divines exhorted him going down the stairs to resist those impaciencies and temptations of the Devil who striveth most to deviate the Soul from her Salvation when as he hath most need of the Divine assistance to withstand his assaults remonstrating also unto him that all his violences and passions could not hinder the Soul to depart from a place where she was but a Tenant at Will He hearkened to them and saying three times ah ah ah raâ—sing his voice at every one he said is there no Mercy in the world I see to day that all the world hath forsaken me He came into the Yard and seeing the Lieutenant of the City in whose house the King had put la Fin to secure him from all attempts My Lord Lieutenant said he I am very much your friend take heed to have any thing to do with that Witch and Magician that lyeth at your house if you meddle with him he will undo you The Scâ—â—ffold was set up in the corner of the Yard over against the Garden gate six foot high and seven long without any Ornament ordistinction He kneeled upon the first step lifted up his Eyes to Heaven and made a short Prayer like a Souldier and went up as couragiously as if he had gone to an assault clad in a Gray Taffety Suit with a black Hat on his Head but as soon as he saw the Executioner he looked furiously upon him and bid him staud aside till he were ready to receive the last stroke He threw his Hat his Handkarchief and Doublet to the first that would take it nevertheless one of the Executioners men was nimbler than all the rest and looking upon the Souldiers that kept the Gate armed with Musquets and Fire-locks Ah! said he mucst I die is there no pardon if at least some of those good fellows would shut me opening his Breast he should oblige my very much what pity is it to die so miserably and of so shameful ablow then directing his speech to the Spectators he said I have put my Soul into such a state as she ought to be to appear before the race of Almighty God but I pity that of the King who causeth the to die unjustfy I have erred I confess but I never attempted any thing against the Kings Person he should have been dead ten years ago if I would have believed the evil Councel that was given me concerning that the trouble and distress of his Soul was so great that a little while before he said three years and now he says ten the Divines having setled him a little once more he received their absolution The Executioner then presented unto him a Frontler but it proved to him a new wound an increase of grief and swore if he toucht him any other way than with the Sword he would strangle him thereupon he asked again for his own Handkarchief to make use of it his hollow and gastly Eyes shewed he was not in his right mind Voisin intreated him to be patient and to raise his thoughts to the place where his Soul was to go and to be attentive to the reading of his Sentence He was unwilling to hear the repetition of his Crimes and to have occasion to exclaim again against the Iniquitie
proofs and the Embassadors Letters Raffis fained to go to a Monastery near Madrid and there make his devotions upon Palm-Sunday as he was wont to do but he went directly to Bayone where he met with Discardes upon a set day Blas came back after Palm-Sunday and finding his Box open and his companion run away he suspected the matter and gave notice of it to the Spanish Ministers who presently dispatched two Courriers to the Spanish Embassador at Paris to give him notice that a man was gone from Madrid who would discover Loste and his practises therefore he should give him notice of it and bid him look to himself and that in case he should be taken to keep secresie Descardes and Raffis came to Paris the Wensday after Easter and carried themselves with all faithfulness in this occasion but not with all the prudence that could have been desired Villeroy was going the same day to lie at his own House between Paris and Fountain-bleau where the Court was then they met with him at Juvisy and waited on him as far as Villeroy but told him nothing of the occasion of their coming by the way till they presented him with the Embassadors Letters which was a notable fault for he would certainly have neglected all other business to secure his man who was then doing his devotions at the Charter-house of Paris The next day Villeroy was the first that told the King of the coming of Raffis and of the perfidiousness of his own servant As he was going back to his Lodging notice was given him that two Spanish Courtiers were arrived at the Post-house he commanded one of the Commissioners of the Post-house that he should cause them to withdraw into a Room and that no body should speak with them he charged also Descardes that he should spy the coming of Loste that he should keep him close company and send him presently notice of his arrival The Commissioner and Descardes did commit here another great fault for Loste being come to the Post-house about noon this silly Commissioner told him that there were arrived two Spanish Courtiers who asked for him that they had Letters for him and more then that suffered him to go into their Chamber and see them he saluted them and one of them whispered him in the ear that he was undone if he did not save himself presently and that Raffis had discovered him fear and astonishment with his guilty conscience persuaded him easily to look to himself Nevertheless he settled his countenance the best he could he went out with an intention to take his Horse again which he had sent before and so save himself Descardes and Raffis perceived him Descardes came and saluted him and thinking perhaps that he was strong enough to give an account of him neglected to send word to Villeroy who was then in his Closet with the Bishop of Chartres Descardes presence was a great thorn in Loste's foot to be rid of him he said he was going to his Master who stayed for him Descardes offered to accompany him he answered he had not dined and that believing it was past Dinner time at home he would go into some Cabaret to look for a Dinner the other answered I have not dinned neither we shall dine together Loste found another excuse and said my Boots hurt me I pray give me leave that I may go and pull them off Descardes answered he must needs drink with him Thus arguing together they came to Villeroy's Lodging where Descardes thinking to have him sure left him in the Room not knowing that the Spanish Courtiers had talked with him and came near the Closet to give notice of it to Villeroy but assoon as he saw himself rid of Descardes he went down into the Stable and finding his Horse yet Sadled he Mounted and with all speed rid to Paris Villeroy in the mean time having notice that his man was come he commanded they should bring them in but he was not to be found nor his Horse neither no body knowing which way he was gone Villeroy told the King that his man was escaped they sent after him on all sides and Villeroy particularly sent all his Servants after into all the ways Loste coming to Paris about nine of the Clock at night went to take counsel of the Spanish Embassadour and before day went out habited like a Spaniard with the Embassadors Steward and took his way towards Meaux with an intent to get into Luxembourg by Poste That every one might endeavour the apprehending of that Traitor it was spread abroad that one of Villeroy's Secretaries had attempted upon the Kings Person and notice was given of his Stature Age Cloaths and Horse The Sheriffs of every Countrey were in quest and all Post Masters were forbidden to let out any Horses but that of Meaux had notice of it too late Loste was got on Horseback already but assoon as he began to gallop his Horse fell to the ground and was an ill Omen to the Rider he got up again and shewed so much fearfulness in his Countenance that the Postillion himself thought he had committed some notorious villany which he did run for Being come home he gave notice of it to his Master who suspecting him to be the man enquired off he gave notice of it to the Sheriff who presently made after him at the second Ferry of la Ferte soubs Jouare where he was Crossing the River the Sheriff cried after the Ferry man to come back but the fear of his life which the two run aways put him into prevailed upon him above the Sheriffs commands being got over and judging that their Post-Horses should be quickly overtaken by those of the Sheriff they forsook them and the Postillon and trusted to their heels in the darkness of the night among the Bushes and Brambles that are upon the River Marne The Sheriff scattered his men all about caused fires to be made and raised up all the Countrey people thereabout the Spaniard ran over the Champion Countrey and Loste went from Bush to Bush and whether accidentally or wilfully he fell into the River Marne where he was drowned the next day his Hat was found between two posts and his body two days after not far from that place Thus you may plainly see the full event of those two famous Prophecies contained in this sixth Stanza VII French La Sangsue au Loup se joindra Lors qu'en Mer le bled defaudra Mais le grand Prince sans envie Par Ambassade luy donra De son bled pour luy donner vie Pour un besoing s'en pourvoira English The Leech will joyn it self to the Wolf When in the Sea Corn shall be wanting But the great Prince without envy By Embassy shall give him Of his Corn to give him life Of which in his need he shall make provision ANNOT. By the Leech is understood the Spaniard By the Wolf is meant the French by reason of the multitude of those Creatures
sur la Terre a caché Ce qui estoit mort sera pour lors en vie English Six hundred and five six hundred and six and seven Will shew us unto the year seventeen The anger of the boutefeu his hatred and envy Under the Olive-Tree a great while hidden The Crocodile upon the ground hath hidden What was dead shall then be alive ANNOT. This Stanza is so difficult signifieth nothing but the confusions that have happened in France from the year 1605. to the year 1917. which would be too tedious and prolix here to relate the Reader may see them in the French History XX. French Celuy qui a par plusieurs fois Tenu la Cage puis les bois Rentre a son premier estre Vie sauve peu apres sortir Ne se scachant encor cognoistre Cherchera subject pour mourir English He that hath many times Been in the Cage and in the Woods Cometh again to his first being And shall go out a little after with his life safe And not able yet to know himself Shall seek a subject to be put to death ANNOT. This is yet concerning the Earl of Auvergne half Brother to the Dutchess of Verneuil who for his misdemeanours having been put several times in the Bastille and set free again nevertheless was attempting still some new thing which might have endangered his life XXI French L'Autheur des maux commencera Regner En l'an six cens sept sans espargner Tous les subjects qui sont a la Sangsüe Et puis apres s'en viendra peu a peu Au franc Païs rallumer son feu S'en retournant d'ou elle est issue English The Author of evils shall begin to Reign In the year six hundred and seven without sparing All the subjects that belong to the Leech And afterwards shall come by little and little To the free Countrey to kindle again his fire Going back again from whence it came ANNOT. The Author being a zealous Roman Catholick calls here the Hollanders the Authors of evils who in the year 1607. and 1608. made a grievous War and had several successes against the Spaniard with the help of the French and English till the year 1609. when by the mediation of the French and English Embassadors the Truce was concluded at Antwerp between the Arch-duke and the States of the United Provinces the Articles of it to the number of 38. were solemnly proclaimed and published the ninth of April and ratified by the King of Spain in the Month of July next ensuing XXII French Cil qui dira descouvrisant l'affaire Comme du mort la mort pourra bien faire Coups de Poniards par un qu'auront induits Sa fin sera pis qu'il n'aura fait faire La fin conduit les hommes sur la Terre Gueté par tout tant le jour que la nuit English He that shall say discovering the business How of the dead can make a death well Strokes of a Dagger by one that hath been induced to it His end shall be worse then he hath caused to be done The end leadeth all men upon the Earth Espied every where as well by day as by night ANNOT. This Stanza is wholly abstruse and Enigmatical therefore I will not pretend to expound it but leave the interpretation to those that have more time and leasure then I. XXIII French Quand la grand Nef la prove Gouvernail Du franc Pais son Esprit vital Descueils flots par la Mer secovée Six cens sept dix coeur assiegé Et des reflux de son corps affiegé Sa vie estant sur ce mal renovée English When the great Ship the Prow and Rudder Of the French Countrey and her vital Spirit Being tossed by Baks and Waves Six hundred and seven and ten a heart beset And by the ebbing of his body afflicted Her life being upon this evil knotted again ANNOT. This Stanza signisieth the great troubles that were in France from the year 1610. in which Henry the IV. died to the year 1617. in which the Marshal d' Ancre was killed This man was named Concino Concini a Florentine born who in a little time was grown very great and from a base extraction had ascended to the dignity of Marshal of France by the favour of the Queen Regent Mary of Medicis and grew so rich that he offered to the King to maintain at his own charge 6000. foot and 800. Horses for four Months together he had made himself Master of many strong Places in Picardy and Normandy went about to buy the Government of several Provinces did dispose of the Kings Exchequer at his pleasure and spent vast sums of money at his Masters charge His insolencies were the cause of his ruine when he thought least of it for he threatned every one with words and deeds so far as to say that he would cause them to eat up their fingérs that should oppose his Will and so caused many Officers and Souldiers of the contrary party to be put to death The King Lewis the XIII was particularly informed of the unsufferable pride and misdemeanors of this Marshal and that his design was to keep up the War in France to continue his Authority and Power therefore the King commanded Vitry the Captain of his Guards to apprehend him This was a difficult thing because that the Marshal besides his Menial servants had always twelve Guards wearing his Livery that were desperate fellows there was also another difficulty because no body could tell when or at what time he would come to the Louvre nevertheless at last he came to it upon the 24. of April 1617. attended with a great Train and his Guards the great Gate was opened to him and presently shut again Vitry drew near to him and holding his staff to him said I arrest you in the Kings name upon these words the Marshal stept back as if it were to make resistance saying Me whereupon those that were with Vitry shot three Pistols at him one did hit him in the Heart the other in the Head and the third in the Belly so that he fell down dead immediately upon his left side a certain Lord that was on his right hand speaking with him fell down also without any hurt but his followers seeing him dead run away This death was the cause of great alterations in the publick Government The body of the said Marshal was buried at St. Germain de l'Auxerrois but the people digged it out and dragged it to the new Bridge where they hanged it by the feet upon a Gibbet having cut off his Nose his Ears and his privy parts then they took him down and dragged him through the Town and afterwards burnt it Thus did perish he that was worth about two Millions of Pounds Sterling and pretended to make his house perpetual and Sovereign The new Officers that had governed the State from the 24 of November to the 24 of
rendra sa gloire memorable English The Phoenix of the old Charon shall be seen To be the first and last of the Sons To shine in France beloved of every one To Reign a great while with all the honours That ever his Predecessors had By which he shall make his glory memorable ANNOT. No doubt but this is meant of some King of France which is to come XLIX French Venus Sol Jupiter Mercure Augmenteront le genre de nature Grande Alliance en France se fera Et du Midy la Sangsue de mesme Le feu esteint par ce remede extreme En Terre ferme Olivier plantera English Venus and So Jupiter and Mercury Shall augment humane kind A great Alliance shall be made in France And on the South the Leech shall do the same The fire extinguished by this extreme remedy Shall plant the Olive-Tree in a firm ground ANNOT. By the consent of all Astronomers those four benigne Planets augment generation That great Alliance mentioned here by which the fire was extinguished and the Olive-Tree planted in a firm ground is the Marriage of the present King of France Lewis the XIV with the Infanta of Spain by which all differences were composed and the Peace firmly settled L. French Un peu devant ou apres l' Angleterre Par mort de Loup mise aussy bas que terre Verra le feu resister contre l'eau Le rallumant avecque telle force Du sang humain dessus l'humaine escorce Faute de pain bondance de cousteau English A little while before or after England By the death of the Wolf being put as low as the ground Shall sec the fire resist against the water Kindling it again with such force Of humane blood upon the humane bark That want of bread and abundance of knives shall be ANNOT. The meaning is that a little while after or before the said match mentioned in the foregoing England was or should be brought as low as the ground and that there should be abundance of humane blood spilled and a great decay of Trade with Wars which is that he calleth Want of Bread and abundance of knives LI. French La Ville qu'avoit en ses ans Combatu l'Injure du temps Qui de son Vainqueur tient la vie Celuy qui premier la surprit Que peu apres Francois reprit Par Combats encore affoible English The City that had in her years Resisted the injury of the times And oweth her life to him that overcame her Being the first that surprised it Which a little while after Francis took again Being yet weâ—kened with fightings LII French La grand Cité qui n'a Pain a demy Encor un coup la saint Barthelemy Engravera au profond de son Ame Nismes Rochelle Geneve Montpelier Castres Lion Mars entrant au Belier S'entrebattront le tout pour une Dame English The great City that hath not bread half enough Shall once more engrave In the bottom of her soul St. Bartholomew's day Nismes Rochel Geneva and Montpelier Castres Lion Mars coming into Aries Shall fight one against another and all for a Lady ANNOT. That great City mentioned here is Paris which is threatned of another St. Bartholomew's day which was fatal to the Protestants in France for upon that day in the year 1572. there was a general Massacre made of them through all France insomuch that in Paris alone there was above ten thousand slain As for those Towns here named that are to fight about a Lady I cannot guess what Lady it should be unless he meaneth the Roman Church LIII French Plusieurs mourront avant que Phoenix meure Jusques six cens septante est sa demeure Passé quinze ans vingt un trente neus Le premier est Subjet a maladie Et le second au fer danger de vie Au seu a l'eau est subjet a trenteneus English Many shall die before that Phoenix dieth Till six hundred and seventy he shall remain Above fifteen years one and twenty thirty nine The first shall be subject to sickness And the second to Iron a danger of life Thirty nine shall be subject to fire and water ANNOT. By the Phoenix is meant a Pope because there is but one of that kind at once the meaning of the rest is unknow to me LIV. French Six cens quinze vingt grand Dame mourra Et peu apres un fort long temps pleuvra Plusieurs Pais Flandres l' Angleterre Seront par seu par fer affligez De leurs Voisins longuement affiegez Contraints seront de leur faire la Guerre English Six hundred and fifteen and twenty a great Lady shall die And a little after it shall rain for a great while Many Countreys as Flanders and England Shall by fire and Iron be afflicted And a good while Besieged by their Neighbours So that they shall be constrained to make War against them ANNOT. What that great Lady was that should die in the year 635. is not easie to guess there being many in every Countrey that died that year The rest is easie and we have seen the truth of it in our days and may see it hereafter LV. French Un peu devant ou apres tres-grand Dame Son ame au Ciel son corps soubs la lame De plusieurs gens regretée sera Tous ses parens seront en grand tristesse Pleurs souspirs d'une Dame en jeunesse Et a deux grands le dueil delaissera English A little while before or after a very great Lady Her soul in Heaven and her body in the Grave Shall be lamented by many All her kindred shall be in great mourning Tears and sighs of a Lady in her youth And shall leave the mourning to two great ones ANNOT. This may be understood of the death of Anna of Austria Queen of France who left in mourning two great ones viz. her two Sons Lewis the XIV King of France and Philip of Bourbon Duke of Orleans Or of the death of the Queen Dowager of England Henrietta Maria who also was much lamented and left in mourning two great ones viz. Charles the II. King of England and James Duke of York his Brother LVI French Tost l'Elephant de toutes parts verra Quand Pourvoyeur au Griffon se joindra Sa ruine proche Mars qui tousiour gronde Fera grands faits aupres de Terre Sainte Grands Estendars sur la Terre sur l'Onde Si la Nef a esté de deux frere enceinte English Shortly the Elephant on all sides shall see When the Purveyor shall joyn with the Griffin His ruine at hand and Mars which always grumbleth Shall do great feats near the Holy Land Great Standarts upon the Earth and the Sea If the Ship hath been with Child of two Brothers ANNOT. The Elephant is the Emperor the Purveyor the King of France the Griffin the Hollanders the meaning then is that the Emperor shall go to ruine when the French and the Hollanders shall joyn together And that there shall be great Wars and Fightings in the Holy Lands both by Sea and Land when two Brothers of great quality shall go in one Ship LVII French Peu apres l'Alliance faite Avant solemnises la Feste L'Empereur le tout troublera Et la nouvelle Mariée Au Franc Païs par sort liée Dans peu de temps apres mourra English A little after the Alliance made Before the Feast be Solemnized The Emperor shall trouble all And the new Bride Being by fate tied to the French Countrey A little while after shall die ANNOT. This is concerning a match that shall be made between the French King and some Lady of another Countrey which Match shall be disturbed by the Emperour and the Bride shall die a little while after her Marriage LVIII French Sangsue en peu de temps mourra Sa mort bon signe nous donra Pour l'accroissement de la France Alliances se trouveront Deux grands Roiaumes se joindront Francois aura sur eux puissance English The Leech within a little while shall die His death shall be a good sign to us For the augmentation of France Alliances shall be found Two great Kingdoms shall joyn together The French shall have power over them ANNOT. The Leech was Philip the IV. the last King of Spain who died a little while after he had Married his Daughter to Lewis the XIV now King of France by which Marriage the Peace was made between the two Kingdoms in the Island of the Conference upon the Borders of France and Spain By his death and that Match is foretold the encrease and happy condition of the Kingdom of France FINIS
against Brundis in Latine Brundusium but shall be beaten back by Aquin and Bresses Cities belonging to the Venetians XXXII French Du Mont Royal naistra d'une Casane Qui Duc Compte viendra tyranniser Dresser Copie de la marche Millane Favence Florence d'or gens espuiser English Out of the Royal Mount shall be born in a Cottage One that shall tyranise over Duke and Earl He shall raise an Army in the Land of Millan He shall exhaust Favence and Florence of their gold ANNOT. This needeth no Interpretation XXXIII French Par fraude Regne forces expolier La classe obsesse passages a l'espie Deux faincts amis se viendront r'allier Esueiller haine de long temps assoupie English By fraud a Kingdom and an Army shall be spoilt The Fleet shall be put to a strait passages shall be made to the spies Two feigned friends shall agree together They shall raise up a hatred that had been long dormant ANNOT. The words are plain XXXIV French En grand regret sera la gent Gauloise Coeur vain leger croira temerité Pain sel ne vin eau venin ne cervoise Plus grand captif faim froid necessite English In great regreet shall the French Nation be Their vain and light heart shall believe rashly They shall have neither Bread Salt Wine nor Beer Moreover they shall be Prisoners and shall suffer hunger cold and need ANNOT. The words are plain and the onely question is whither this distress threatned here to France is past or to come XXXV French La grand poche viendra plaindre pleurer D'avoir esleu trompez seront en l'Aage Guâ—ere avec eux ne voudra demeurer Deceu sera par ceux de son langage English The great Pocket shall bewaile and bemoan For having Elected one they shall be deceived in his Age He shall not stay long with them He shall be deceived by those of his own language ANNOT. The great Pocket which is the Key of this Stanza being obscure forceth me to leave the rest unperfect XXXVI French Dieu le Ciel tout le Divin Verbe a l'Onde Porté par rouges sept razes a Bizance Contre les oingts trois cens de Trebisonde Deux Loix mettront horreur puis credence English God Heaven all the Divine Word in water Carryed by red ones seven shaved heads at Bisantium Against the anointed three hundred of Trebisond They shall put two Laws and horror and afterwards believe ANNOT. This seemeth to foretel that the Sacrament according to the Roman Church shall be carried by Cardinals and seven Priests to Constantinople against which three hundred of Trebison shall dispute who shall compare the two Laws with horror and afterwards believe XXXVII French Dix envoyez chef de nef mettre a mort D'un adverty en classe guerre ouverte Confusion chef l'un se picque mord Leryn Stecades ness cap dedans la nerte English Ten shall be sent to put the Captain of the Ship to death He shall have notice by one the Fleet shall be in open War A confusion shall be amongst the Chief one pricks and bites Leryn Stecades nefs caps dedans la nerte ANNOT. The three first Verses are plain as for the fourth I believe it to be the Language of the Antipodes for I think no man can understand it XXXVIII French L'Aisné Roial sur courfier voltigeant Picquer viendra si rudement courir Gueule lipée pied dans l'Estrein pleignant Traine tiré horriblement mourir English The eldest Royal prancing upon a Horse Shall spur and run very fiercely Open mouth the foot in the Stirrup complaining Drawn pulled die horribly ANNOT. This foretelleth of the eldest Son of a King who prancing upon his Horse shall Spur and run so fiercely that his foot being intangled in the Stirrup he shall be dragged and pulled and die a fearful death In the year 1555. upon the 25. of May this came to pass in the person of Henry of Albret the second of that name King of Navarre This Prince Henry II. the eldest Royal riding upon a horse did spur him so hard that he ran away with him so that he perceiving the danger he was in pulled the Bridle so hard that the horse's mouth was broken the pain did not stop the horse but contrariwise he grew the more untoward that Henry fell down and in falling one of his feet hung in the stirrup so that he was drawn and died a horrid death This I found in the History of Naples XXXIX French Le conducteur le l'Armée Francoise Cuidant perdre le principal Phalange Par sus pavé de l' Avaigne Ardoise Soy parfondra par Gennes gent estrange English The leader of the French Army Thinking to rout the chiefest Phalange Upon the Pavement of Avaigne and Slate Shall sink in the ground by Gennes a strange Nation ANNOT. It seemeth that a French General thinking to rout and overcome the chiefest strength of his enemy and going upon a brittle Pavement made of Slate shall sink in the ground not far from Genoa which he calleth a strange Nation to the French XL French Dedans tonneaux hors oingts d'huile graisse Seront vingt un devant le port fermez Au second guet feront par mort prouesses Gaigner les portes du quet assommez English With Pipes annointed without with Oyl and Grease Before the harbour one and twenty shall be shut At the second Watch by death they shall do great feats of Arms To win the Gates and be killed by the Watch. ANNOT. The words and sense of this Stanza are plain XLI French Les os des pieds des mains enferrez Par bruit maison long temps inhabitée Seront par songes concavant deterrez Maison salubre sans bruit habitée English The bones of the feet and of the hands in shackles By a noise a house shall be a long time deserted By a dream the buried shall be taken out of the ground The house shall be healthful and inhabited without noise ANNOT. I have found the truth of this Stanza upon the place in my going to Lion it was my fortune to lye at a Town four Leagues on this side of it called Lapacodier where this Story was told me to have happened few days before It chanced that a Company of Foot was to lie in the Town and distressed for quarter they enquired why such a house was empty and were told it was not inhabited by reason of a noise heard there every night The Captain of the Troop resolved since he feared not the living not to fear the dead and thereupon lay in the house that night where Beds were provided for him and about half a Dozen of his stoutest Souldiers so they laid down their weapons on the Table and began to be merry at Cards and Dice expecting the event The door being fast locked about twelve and one they heard as though some body knockt at the door one of the Souldiers by
the Captains command with a Pistol in his hand and a Candle opened the door then appeared to them a Phantasm in the shape of an old man loaded with Chains that made a great noise this Phantasm beckened to the Captain at the Table to come to him the Captain also rising beckened to the Phantasm to come to him this lasted for a while till the Captain resolved to go to him and so taking a Candle in one hand and a Pistol in the other bid his Souldiers follow him hand in hand with their Arms then taking the Phantasm by the hand which was exceeding cold he led them into the Cellar and through many turnings till at last the Phantasm vanished and the Candles went out then were they constrained to remain there till day light when perceiving where they were and having taken notice of the Place where the Phantasm left them they went out and related the story to the Townsmen so afterwards they digged in that place where they found a kind of a Trunk and the bones of a man in it shackled they buryed the body in a Church-yard and no noise was heard afterwards in that house this came to pass about 1624. XLII French Quand Innocent tiendra le lieu de Pirre Le Nizaram Sicilian se verra En grands honneurs mais apres il cherra Dans le bourbier d'une Civile guerre English When Innocent shall hold the place of Peter The Sicilian Nizaram shall see himself In great honours but after that he shall fall Into the dirt of a Civil war ANNOT. Nothing can be more plain and true than this Prophecie and those that deny it may also deny the light of the Sun but to make it more evident we will examine it Verse by Verse When Innocent shall hold the place of Peter that is when one named Innocent shall be Pope as he was that preceded the last The Sicilian Nizaram shall see himself in great honours that is the Sicilian Nizarim for Nizaram is the Annagramme of Mazarin letter for letter who was born in Sicily shall see himself in great honours as he did for he was then in his greatest splendor But after that he shall fall into the dirt of a Civil War As every one knows he did having put in Prison the Prince of Condé the Prince of Conty and the Duke of Congueiulle can any thing be more plain and yet when I read this forty years ago I took it to be ridiculous XLIII French Lutece en Mars Senateurs en credit Par une nuict Gaule sera troublée Du grand Craesus l'Horoscope predit Par Saturnus sa puissance exillée English Lutetia in Mars Senators shall be in credit In a night France shall be troubled The Horoscope of the great Craesus foretelleth That by Saturn his power shall be put down ANNOT. Lutetia in Latine is the City of Paris after the death of Henry IV. the Parliament of Paris began to prick up their ears and to go about to call the great ones to account amongst whom was the Marquess d' Ancre favourite of the Queen Regent that had gathered great riches and therefore is called here Craesus our Author saith that his power shall be put down by Saturnus which must here be understood mistically which proved true for by the Kings command then Lewis XIII he was shot with three Pistols in the Louvre LXIV French Deux de poison saisis nouveaux Venus Dans la cuisine du grand Prince verser Par le souillard tous deux au fait cogneus Prins qui cuidoit de mort l'aisné vexer English Two newly come being provided with poison To pour in the Kitchin of the great Prince By the Cooks Boy the fact shall be known And he taken that thought by death to vex the elder ANNOT. This came to pass in the time of Henry IV. who was poisoned at Melan by two unknown men who were discovered by the Cooks Boy in the doing of it and were both taken the History is at large in Peter Matthew his Historiographer which I could not insert here for the satisfaction of the Reader because I could not get the Book the Reader may satisfie himself upon the place Other Stanzas taken out of twelve under the seventh Century out of which eight have been rejected because they were found in the foregoing Centuries LXXIII French REnfort de Sieges manubis maniples Changez le sacre passe sur le pronsne Prins captifs n'arreste les prez triples Plus par fonds mis elevé mis au Trosne English Recruit of Sieges spoils and prizes Corpus Christi day shall be changed and the pronsne slighted They shall be taken and made Prisoners do not stay in the threefold Field Moreover one put in the bottom shall be raised to the Throne LXXX French L'Occident libre les Isles Britanniques Le recogneu passer le bas puis haut Ne content triste Rebel corss Escotiques Puis rebeller par plui par nuict chaut English The West shall be free and the Brittish Islands The discovered shall pass low then high Scottish Pirates shall be who shall rebel In a rainy and hot night LXXXII French La stratageme simulte sera rare La Mort en voye rebelle par contrée Par le retour du voyage Barbare Exalteront la potestante entrée English The stratagem and grudge shall be scarce Death shall be in a rebellious way through the Countrey By the return from a Barbarian travel They shall exalt the Protestant entrance LXXXIII French Vent chaut conseil pleurs timidité De nuict au lict assailly sans les Armes D'oppression grand calamité L' Epithala 〈…〉 converty pleurs larmes English Hot wind councel tears fearfulness He shall be assaulted in his bed by night without Arms From that oppression shall be raised a great calamity The Epithalamium shall be converted into tears ANNOT. The reason why I have put no Annotations to these as I have done to the rest is because according to my judgement and that of the most Learned they are spurious TO THE READER Friendly Reader BEfore you Read the following Epistle I would have you be warned of a few things One is that according to my opinion it is very obscure and intelligible in most places being without any just connection and besides the obscurity of the sense the crabbedness of the expression is such that had not the importunity of the Bookseller prevailed I would have left it out but considering the respect due to Antiquity the satisfaction we owe to curious persons who would perhaps have thought the Book imperfect without it we let it go trusting to your Candor and Ingenuity Farewell THE PROPHECIES OF Michael Nostradamus CENTURY VIII IX X. That had not been Printed before and are in the same Edition of 1568. TO THE Most Invincible most High and most Christian King of France HENRY the Second Michael Nostradamus his most obedient Servant