speak through the mouth of the gun, with recoil [_sauts_, or kick],
after the powder-charge is well driven home with the ram-rod, it will
be most murderous by explosion in the air. The invention of the musket
dates 1630. Troops, Le Pelletier says, were first armed with it in
1671. Nostradamus, it is to be observed, anticipates by an ingenious
amplification and periphrasis the very name _chien_, by which the French
designate this portion of the lock. It would not have served its purpose
for the name of the same thing in English. This anticipation of the slang
term of manufacture, a hundred years before the thing itself was used or
named, seems to show an intimacy with what would be called matters of
chance, that is inconceivable and beyond all comprehensibility.
I cannot but append here a translation of Guynaud’s remarks upon this
quatrain. They are, I think, the funniest that occur in the whole book.
He says:
“Nostradamus warns us here that two prodigious things are
to occur at last: one, that the industry and care of man
will arrive at such a point that a domestic animal, such as
dogs are, will be got to speak. For to imagine that this can
be intended of birds is out of the question quite, as they
are excluded from the list of domestic animals created by
God for the service of man, as quadrupeds are. The words of
the two first lines of the prophecy are _Quand après grande
peine l’animal domestique viendra parler à l’homme et qu’il
sautera_,—just as dogs do in approaching their master. A
further thing is to happen that is no less astonishing: a demon
is to mingle himself with powder, and suddenly transport a girl
into the air, when she will remain suspended for possibly a
whole day long, according to these words: ‘_La foudre à vierge
sera si malefique; de terre prinse et suspendue en l’air_.’
The critics may suppose that to mean that the girl will be
hanged; but this is not so, in my opinion, because the word
_malefique_ is derived from the Latin _maleficus_, which in
itself indicates a maleficent spirit delighting to work evil,
as the devil always is.”—GUYNAUD, “Concordances,” p. 271.
LOUIS XIV.
(1643-1715.)
COMMENCEMENT OF HIS PERSONAL REIGN (MARCH 10, 1661). [I. 118.]
_Quatrain added to the Xth Century._[152]
Quand le fourchu sera soustenu de deux paux,[153]
Avec six demy-corps[154] et six sizeaux ouverts,
Le très puissant Seigneur, heritier des crapaux,
Alors subjugera sous soy tout l’univers.
_Translation._
When a fork sustained by two stakes (_i.e._ V, _fourchu_,
sustained by two stakes upright, II. = M, a thousand,) and six
half horns and six scissors open (CCCCCC, XXXXXX). (Half horn
is the _cor de chasse_, or French horn cut in half, like a C,
making altogether 1600).
The very mighty King, inheritor of the toads, shall subjugate
to his power the whole universe.
These two first lines are clumsily employed in giving the date, but still
were in print fifty-five years before the date named.
Mazarin died on March 9, 1661. The following day Louis XIV. became full
inheritor of the lilies, took the reins of government, and subjected
everything to his will.
Upon this Le Pelletier remarks that the toads, as emblematic of France,
were standards borne under the early kings of the Merovingian race.
The _fleurs-de-lys_ were of later introduction, under Clovis, son of
Childeric I., the founder of the Christian monarchy of the Franks.
TREATY OF WESTPHALIA, ETC. (1648-1661). [I. 119.]
_Century X.—Quatrain 7._
Le grand conflit qu’on appreste à Nancy;
L’Æmathien[155] dira, tout je soubmets;
L’isle Britanne par[156] vin sel en soucy;
Hem-mi[157] deux Phi[158] longtemps ne tiendra Metz.
_Translation._
A great conflict will approach Nancy;
The Æmathion will say, I submit all to me;
The isle of Britain will be agitated for lack of force and wisdom;
Metz will not hold out long against the two Philips.
Nancy was taken in 1660 by the French, when they razed the fortifications
and united it with France. It appears to me that the first two lines of
this quatrain should have formed the last two, but how any such error as
that could have crept in is quite inexplicable. The reader will discern
that a difference of about twelve years exists between the dates involved
in the two distichs, that, as they are given, they are contrary to
chronology, and that for such disarrangement no reason is assignable. If
this is the way in which visions presented themselves to our seer, there
is no reason to suppose, as I do, that he shook up the separate quatrains
purposely to destroy a sequence that would have rendered them too easy of
interpretation. It might have been a printer’s error.
We have already seen what is the classical meaning to be attributed
to Æmathion—that it relates to the sun and to Alexander the Great. In
Nostradamus it refers to Louis XIV. (_Louis le Grand_). Of him it is
to be remembered that he assumed as his emblem and that of France, the
sun, with the motto _Nec pluribus impar_. Now, the sun, in the language
of alchemists, stands for gold, and, in the metaphorical language
of the Church, for Christianity. Gold is all the Christianity that
many Christians possess. _Les Solaires_, in Nostradamus, is used for
Christians. It is especially connected with France, inasmuch as her
King is held at Rome, that centre of titles and of prelatical humility,
to be _Christianissimus_. But this stout Capetian glorious King meant
it of sovereignty. It was to signify, as Nostradamus has it, _tout je
soubmets_. What is this man’s own choice of a posy, to be cut around his
signet? _Nec pluribus impar._ What is the axiom his blind self-pride
invents when the death of Mazarin emancipates him from tutelage, and
he grips the reins of France in his sole left hand (in 1661)? _L’État,
c’est Moi._ Can insolence rise higher? Wait an odd century or so and
see a scaffold spring before your Tuilleries windows, see an Æmathion,
but twice removed in blood, roll his head, red, gushing, spurting, and
bounding on the sawdust-sprinkled planks there; its motto, could it
speak, would be your axiom recast fatally, _L’État du Capet!_ (_Caput!_)
We have not quite concluded yet. When the treaty of Westphalia shall be
agreed to between France and Philip IV. of Spain in 1648, and before
the war of Succession to seat Philip V., grandson of Louis XIV., on
the throne, Metz shall be ceded to France, and lose for ever its title
of Imperial City, between the two Philips—Philip IV. and Philip V.,
_protégé_ of France.
England about the same time, in revolution kindled by that imp of
malevolence, Richelieu, shall behead its king, 1649, and be in anxiety
because of the want of force and wisdom (_vin et sel_). This symbol Le
Pelletier interprets thus: Wine is the symbol of force, because of its
_heat_; and salt, because of its incorruptibility, is the symbol of
_wisdom_. I think it clear that this is not to be the interpretation
here. He does not allude to _want_ of force and wisdom; but anxiety
(_soucy_) is caused by force and wisdom (_à l’envers_, as he puts again
in reference to England, Century IX. 49; vol. i. 141) applied in the
wrong direction.
This, though a highly unsatisfactory quatrain, as I have shown above,
is, nevertheless, one of the most remarkable of the whole series. The
time of the Westphalian treaty synchronises with the revolt in England—a
revolt which we have seen to be fostered out of mere pique by the
vulpine Richelieu; a Churchman plotting royal murder, taught by Rome’s
consent that regicide was God’s service, when a king (Henri III.) stood
in her way; and when the Church once corrupted herself, baptizing her
St. Bartholomew whose emblem was a knife, in blood, she absolved Paris,
[_cité au glaive_, i. 182] who in midsummer madness stained her kennels
red. The example of Whitehall—in re-enactment before the Tuilleries
(_vin et sel à l’envers_), with force and wisdom converted into violence
and democratic sensibility,—next turned Paris _rouge_, and the blood
carnation burst into bloom at every street corner.
“When nations are to perish in their sins,
’Tis in the Church the leprosy begins;”
says the wise, mild, thoughtful, but much underrated bard, Cowper, who
has done Gilpin inimitably, and Homer better than anybody else, by a long
way.
LOSS OF DE LA FERRIÈRE’S SQUADRON (1655). [I. 121.]
_Century III.—Quatrain 87._
Classe[159] Gauloise n’approche de Corsegue,[160]
Moins de Sardaigne, tu t’en repentiras:
Trestous mourrez frustrés de l’aide grogne;
Sang nagera, captif ne me croiras.
_Translation._
Approach not Corsica, thou fleet of France,
Nor yet Sardinia, lest thou rue the chance:
For ye no headland aids, ye all shall die,
The captive drown, for unbelieved am I.
M. le Pelletier tells us of a French squadron, commanded by the Chevalier
de la Ferrière in 1655, that foundered in the Gulf of Lyons in coasting
Corsica and Sardinia. All hands perished: they did not, he says, pass
Cape Pourceau. He points out that _Grogne_ is the synonym of Pourceau,
which is a cape with a little port in the Mediterranean. This may have
more to support it than appears at first sight, but I think it much
simpler to take it for what it says. _Grogne_ is the same as _Groin_,
cape, or headland which runs out into the sea. In other words: nothing
will put off to you from the headland where you founder; there will
you all be drowned; for what the better will your master pilot be for
this advertisement of mine? Jean de Rian was this master pilot, and _Le
Captif_ was his nickname, as he had been a slave.
Though perfectly useless for interpretation, Garencières makes
annotations on this quatrain, that have an interest of their own. He
takes the fulfilment to have been in 1555, just about the time when the
quatrains were copied out for presentation to Henri II. But he remarks
that _Greigne_, which is the word in his reading, signifies _galley_ in
the Provençal language, which was that of Nostradamus by his mother’s
side; and this makes very good sense: “they shall all founder without a
galley putting out to them from the shore.”
Of course Garencières knows nothing about Jean de Rian, or the curious
precision with which Nostradamus gives us his nickname _Captif_; but he
appends to his “Poor prisoner, thou shalt not believe me” the following
comment that is worth recording, as it may furnish a link to some inquiry
in the future:
“We find in this work many examples of those who went to
consult with the author concerning the success of their
undertakings, as did the Earl of _Sommerive_, before the
besieging of Bagnole; to whom he answered, that he should leave
the trees loaded with a new kind of fruit, that is to say, the
rebels, whom he caused to be hanged on the trees.”
FORTIFICATIONS OF VAUBAN AND THE CANAL OF LANGUEDOC (1659-1666). [I. 122.]
_Century IX.—Quatrain 93._
Les ennemies du fort bien esloignés,
Par chariots conduict le bastion,
Par sur les murs de Bourges esgrongnés,[161]
Quand Hercules bastira l’Hæmathion. [162]
_Translation._
When the enemy are driven from French soil,
And earthworks or bastions are brought by carts;
When the walls of Bourges have crumbled by time,
Then will Æmathion undertake a work of Hercules.
When the peace of the Pyrenees, concluded with Spain in 1659, had removed
the enemy from the French frontiers, and Vauban had invented earthworks:
at least so says Le Pelletier; Nostradamus only says he used them. Moreri
tells us that the castle of Grosse Tour at Bourges was not repaired by
Louis XIV., and was already partly ruined in 1651. This line seems to
be a whimsical, but special announcement of the fact. Then Æmathion,
or Louis XIV., will undertake the Herculean labour of constructing the
Canal of Languedoc, which opened the Mediterranean to the ocean. It was
begun by Paul Riquet in 1666, and terminated in 1681. It cost thirty-four
million francs. It is said that when Vauban visited it he gave some
useful hints that were acted upon with advantage. Vauban, like Turenne,
was a glory, not to France, but to mankind. He was truly great, for he
despised riches, and loved truth to indiscretion; yet his life shows that
in judgment he much excelled those who loved truth less.
PEACE OF THE PYRENEES (NOVEMBER 7, 1659). [I. 123.]
_Century X.—Quatrain 58._
Au temps du dueil que le felin[163] monarque,
Guerroyera le jeune Æmathien:
Gaule bransler, perecliter la barque,[164]
Tenter[165] Phossen,[166] au Ponant[167] entretien.
_Translation._
When the court of France shall be in mourning, the cat-like
monarch shall make war against the young Æmathien. France will
stagger; the bark of St. Peter be in danger. Marseilles will be
taken. Two great personages will meet in the West of France.
More at large this may be read, that at the death of Louis XIII., when
the French Court is in mourning, shrewd Philip IV. of Spain will make
war on the boy King. France will be greatly shaken (1648-1653) by the
civil war of the Fronde, whilst Rome will be endangered by the growth of
Jansenism. This is Le Pelletier’s version. Garencières says that Paris
is signified, as she carries a ship represented in her arms. The 2nd of
March, 1660, Louis XIV. enters Phocea or Marseilles by a breach, after
which it submits to him. He then hurries to the west of the Isle of
Conference on the Bidassoa, and there concludes the peace of the Pyrenees
with Philip IV., and marries his daughter, the infanta Maria Theresa, of
Austria.
THE EXPEDITION TO IRELAND IN SUPPORT OF JAMES II. (1689-1691). [I. 125.]
_Century II.—Quatrain 68._
De l’Aquilon les efforts seront grands,
Sur l’Ocean sera la porte ouverte,
Le regne en l’Isle sera reintegrand,
Tremblera Londres par[168] voilles[169] descouverte.
_Translation._
Ireland, on the north of England, shall make great efforts. The
door of the ocean shall be opened to the fleets of France; the
kingdom in the island of Ireland shall be set up again; London
shall tremble at the discovery of sails.
When William III., in 1688, shall have established himself on the throne,
when James II. absconded; Ireland will still be a stronghold, and the
French fleets, commanded by Château Renaud and Tourville, will convoy the
King to Ireland, in spite of the combined fleets of England and Holland,
in 1689-1690. They will become masters of the sea, and London will for
a moment tremble before the fleets of Louis XIV. This is Le Pelletier’s
statement. After the fight off Beachy Head on June 30, 1690, it seems to
have been pretty much as he relates; for Smollett’s account (ed. 1822, i.
93) is that;
“Torrington retreated without further interruption into the
mouth of the Thames; and, having taken precautions against any
attempts of the enemy in that quarter, returned to London, the
inhabitants of which were overwhelmed with consternation.”
There is a most remarkable passage in the work of M. Bouys on this
quatrain. He professes to apply it to the coming victory that was to
confer on Napoleon the coveted command of the seas, saying that you need
not always wait until after the event to interpret Nostradamus. His
own conduct, however, in this very instance does but enforce the rule.
He pretends not to know anything of the fulfilment in 1689-1690. In
furtherance of the same view he cites Century VIII., Quatrain 37:
La forteresse auprès de la Thamise
Cherra pour lors le roi dedans serré,
Auprès du pont sera vu en chemise,
Un devant mort, puis dans le fort barré.
The word _cherra_ presents the only difficulty here as to the mere
words. It is the future of the verb _choir_, tomber, to fall. Of the
prophecy I know of no interpretation. Garencières significantly quotes
Dan. iv. 10: “The dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation
thereof to thine enemies.”
WAR OF THE CAMISARDS (1702-1704). [I. 126.]
_Century IX.—Quatrain 38._
L’entrée de Blaye par Rochelle et l’Anglois,
Passera outre le grand Æmathien:
Non loin d’Agen attendra le Gaulois,
Secours Narbonne deceu par entretien.
_Translation._
The great Æmathion shall pass out of the Garonne at Blaye,
the seaport of Bordeaux, no longer impeded by Rochelle and
the English; the Camisards shall look for aid from their
co-religionists on the side of Agen and Narbonne, but will be
disappointed by an arrangement.
Louis XIV. shall pass out by the _Pâté_ de Blaye, a fort of that name,
built by him in 1689 to command the entrance of the Gironde against the
English and the Protestants of Rochelle. The Camisards in revolt in the
Cévennes (_les Gaulois_) will wait at Agens and Narbonne for promised
help, but quite in vain, after the submission of Jean Cavalier (1704) to
Marshal Villars, at a Conference held at Nîmes. Louis XIV. was so beset
by the enemies of France that he sent the Marshal into Languedoc to
pacify the districts he despaired of subduing by force.
In this quatrain, Garencières shows that there is some analogy between
_Æmathien_, which we are quite sure is Louis XIV. from the frequency of
the application to him, and the country of Macedon, so-called, where
Cæsar and Pompey fought their last battle in the field of Pharsalia; and
he quotes Lucan’s line—
Bella per Æmathios plus quam civilia campos.
It is very probable that line was in the mind of Nostradamus at the
moment.
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (1701-1713). [I. 127.]
_Century IV.—Quatrain 2._
Par mort la France prendra voyage à faire,
Classe[170] par mer, marcher monts Pyrenées,
Espaigne en trouble, marcher gent militaire;
Des plus grands Dames en France emmenées.
_Translation._
By reason of a death, France shall undertake a foreign
expedition. The fleet will go by sea, the troops will cross
the Pyrenees. Spain in trouble will march her military forces,
because great ladies have migrated to France.
Philip V., grandson of Louis le Grand, by will of Charles II., will
ascend the Spanish throne. But Austria, England, Holland, Prussia,
Portugal, and Savoy will coalesce to support the pretensions of the
Archduke Charles. The fleets of France will put to sea, her armies will
cross the Pyrenees. Spain, in two camps, will be trampled by troops in
every direction: all springing out of Bourbon marriages with the two
Infantas; one, daughter of Philip III. married to Louis XIII., the other,
a daughter of Philip IV., married to Louis XIV. This war lasted twelve
years, and was disastrous to France. Philip V. found himself chased from
Spain by the Austrians. By the Peace of Utrecht, 1713, the Spanish
monarchy was dismembered, and some of his earlier conquests were snatched
from Louis XIV.
OVERTHROW OF PHILIP V., _GRANDSON OF LOUIS XIV_. (1706). [I. 129.]
_Century IX.—Quatrain 64._
L’Æmathion passer monts Pyrenées,
En Mars Narbon[171] ne fera resistance,
Par mer terre fera si[172] grand menée,
Cap[173] n’ayant terre seure pour demeurance.
_Translation._
The Æmathion is to pass the Pyrenean Mount;
In Narbo Martius no resistance shows;
By sea and land are greatest efforts made;
The Capet holds no foot of land is safe.
Louis XIV. will leap the Pyrenees, and will treat (as we have before
seen) with the Camisards of Narbonne. He will make desperate efforts by
sea and land. But the Capetian, his grandson, Philip V., will be driven
out of Spain by the Imperial forces, and not retain a foot of soil on
which to live.
In all these passages of history, quite detached as they seem to be,
we find analogies springing up at all points: Æmathion the Macedonian,
and Louis le Grand; the Spanish succession which came up again in Louis
Philippe’s time, even to uniting the very two names of Louis XIV. and
his grandson Philip V. in his own baptismal one. Louis wished to expel
a Charles, and Louis Philippe actually expelled Charles X. Leibnitz
made an express journey to Paris to persuade Louis XIV. to undertake a
grand expedition against Egypt. Napoleon, the next Æmathion or Apollon
leading France to mischief, was thrust into an Egyptian expedition, and
entered into a desperate Spanish war to follow, that crippled France
again. History repeats itself, they say. It seems at every turn to
be perpetually engaged in a process of replaiting its old lines and
once-discarded threads.
LOUIS XV.
MINORITY OF LOUIS XV. (SEPTEMBER 1, 1715). [I. 131.]
_Century III.—Quatrain 15._
Coeur, vigueur, gloire, le regne changera.
De tous points contre ayant son adversaire:
Lors France enfance par mort subjuguera;
Un grand Regent sera lors plus contraire.
_Translation._
Heart, vigour, glory, change with change of reign,—
At every point opposed by something cross:
An infant is set up in France by death;
And a great Regent helps the contrary.
With the death of Louis XIV., the splendour of his reign will pass away,
and every point show contrary in his successor. By failure of direct
inheritors of the throne, Louis XV., a child of five will rule, under
Philippe d’Orléans (_un grand Regent_), whose vices will show him more
contrary to Louis XIV. than even to Louis XV.
DECADENCE OF MONARCHY (1715-1774). [I. 132.]
_Century V.—Quatrain 38._
Ce grand monarque qu’au mort succedera,[174]
Donnera vie illicite lubrique,
Par nonchalance à tous concedera,
Qu’à la parfin faudra[175] la loy Salique.
_Translation._
He who succeeds to the great monarch dead, will lead an evil
and illicit life. By his neglectful habit he will entrust
business to the management of others, so that at last (_à la
parfin, per finem_) the Salic law will fail.
In other words, this is a plain announcement that the reign of Louis XV.
will serve as a simple prelude or introduction to the establishment of a
Republic; the annihilation of the Salic law; and of the French throne.
ENGLAND.
CHANGES OF GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND (1501-1791). [I. 135.]
_Century VI.—Quatrain 57._
Sept fois changer verrez gent[176] Britannique.
Teints en sang en deux cens nonante an;
Franche[177] non point, par[178] appuy Germanique;
Aries[179] doubte son pole Bastarnan.[180]
_Translation._
You will see the British nation change seven times, stained
with blood, in two hundred and ninety years; but not so France,
thanks to the strength of its Germanic Kings [of the Capetian
race]. The sign of the Ram will not know (_doubte_) the
northern district (_son pole Bastarnan_), so changed will it be.
England will change its government seven times in a period of 290
years, inundated with blood, says Le Pelletier,—making this long run of
years commence at what he calls the Renaissance (1501-1791). Not so in
France; thanks to the firmness of the Germanic kings, she will hold out
till 1792. I take this to be, in effect, a French endeavour to chalk
out a grand epoch in French annals. Poland (_la Bastarnie_) will be
dismembered. The first partition took place in 1772. There will arise
in the north of Europe,—Peter the Great ascending the Russian throne,
1682, and Lutheranism triumphing in Germany, 1517,—so that Aries cannot
identify the regions adjacent to its northern pole (_son pole Bastarnan_).
M. le Pelletier gives an elaborate statement of what he conceives to
be the seven Revolutions in England (1501-1791). But starting from
the Renaissance, at the fancy date 1501, he vitiates the whole of the
interpretation as it relates to England; but for the last half of the
quatrain he is excellent. His interpretation of the fourth line is
masterly. Garencières gives a lengthy annotation, to me in the main
unintelligible, but he makes the period to run out about the year 1845;
in which year I can see nothing to chronicle but the Maynooth Grant of
£26,000 per annum. He says the two first lines refer to England, and he
leaves the English nation to interpret them. We shall shortly try to do
so.
(1) The Revolution Le Pelletier dates 1532, when Henry VIII. is
proclaimed by Parliament the head of the Church; 1534 this should be. (2)
Re-establishment of Popery under Queen Mary. (3) Elizabeth comes back
to Protestantism. (4) Commonwealth follows upon death of Charles I. (5)
Restoration under Charles II. (6) William III. takes the throne of James
II. (7) The House of Hanover succeeds.