Bordeaux,—the Henri Cinq that was never to be,—that Royal Prince whom
all the Princes should see to be heaven-descended. But as we, who are
not royal, have seen that nothing came of him; and that, being now dead,
nothing can come of him, we shall pass over the six quatrains in silence.
The quatrains of Nostradamus lend themselves most kindly to elucidation
once you find the clue, but they most persistently refuse to have a
meaning read into them from without.
M. le Pelletier has elaborated the meaning of the six quatrains, about
Louis Philippe with so much ingenious learning that we must give the
whole of them, and let the reader take them at his own valuation.
_Century VI.—Quatrain 84._
Celuy qu’en[402] Sparte Claude[403] ne peut regner,
Il fera tant par voye seductive,
Que du court, long le fera araigner,[404]
Que contre Roy fera sa perspective.[405]
_Translation._
He who will cause that the lame cannot reign in Paris,[406]
He will effect so much in his seductive way
That from the short to long he will attain,
Who has brought to bear his deception against the King.
The meaning of this is that Louis Philippe d’Orléans will cause the
Duc de Bordeaux to be unable to hold the reins of government in Paris.
The anagrammatic substitution of Sparte for Paris is doubly ingenious,
inasmuch as Lycurgus at Sparta established a double kingship so-called.
Of course the office could not be that of king at all, but there was the
name if not the fact, and that suffices for this prince of dexterous
analogists, Nostradamus. Louis Philippe will achieve this by the
byeways of seduction, and will usurp successfully his nephew’s throne
(araigner), putting himself in opposition, says Le Pelletier, to his
lawful King. _Faire sa perspective_ he renders opposition. I do not think
this is the meaning of the phrase. There is an extract from Fontenelle
(I cannot refer to it in his works at present), in which he speaks of
a perspective that will make an emperor or a beggar out of the same
figure, according to the point of view from which you regard it. That is
an optical illusion. Descartes, in his “L’Homme,” mentions the pictures
placed at the end of corridors to cheat the eye agreeably, and adds,
“L’exemple des tableaux de perspective montre combien il est facile de
s’y tromper.” And then there were those perspectives that Holbein and
his contemporaries used to introduce into their pictures, of a skull, or
death’s head, so painted that you could not quite tell what it was till
you reached the right point of view, when it would suddenly contract
and draw its elongated self together to a true skull by a process the
reverse of foreshortening. By the words _sa perspective_, I conceive
that Nostradamus meant that Louis Philippe brought his deception to bear
against the King.
_Century V.—Quatrain 69._ [I. 250.]
Plus ne sera le Grand en faux sommeil,
L’inquietude viendra prendre repos:
Dresser phalange[407] d’or, azur, et vermeil,
Subjuger Afrique, la ronger jusques os.
_Translation._
Le Grand will pretend no longer a false sleep;
His disquietude will now lull itself in security,
Arrange his army under gold, blue, and red,
Subjugate Africa, gnawing it to the very bone.
Louis Philippe, now King, and so become _le Grand_, says M. le Pelletier
(though, as applied to the individual, it looks quite like a misnomer),
will now unmask his designs, and take his repose in security. He will
adopt the tricolour of the Revolution and complete the conquest of
Algeria; Pelissier roasting the refugees in caves, to the very bone.
Everything but the word _Grand_ justifies the interpretation to a nicety.
_Century I.—Quatrain 39._ [I. 251.]
De nuict dans lict le supresme[408] estranglé,
Pour avoir trop sejourné blond esleu,
Par trois[409] l’Empire subrogé[410] exanclé[411]
A mort mettra carte[412] et pacquet ne leu.[413]
_Translation._
When France shall be dominated by three parties,
The last of the family shall be strangled at night in bed,
For having lent too much to the fair Capet.
Put to death because a paper and packet were not read.
When France is dominated by three alternately (Orleanists, Republicans,
Bonapartists), the Prince de Bourbon, Condé, last of his race, shall
be strangled, at night in his bed, for desiring to follow in the suite
of the Duc de Bordeaux. A new will, duly sealed up, in favour of the
Bourbon, but not read, is the cause of his death. The “not read” means,
not read by the Duc de Bordeaux, in whose favour it was drawn. The
Baronne de Feuchères, whose interests were allied to those of Louis
Philippe, defeated this by the murder. M. le Pelletier acquits Louis
Philippe of complicity in the crime, but he remarks that the interest of
the baronne was incidentally that of the King. Her crime was incited by
the desire to do away with the new will, by which she would be a heavy
loser. It is curious that Garencières considers this quatrain to have
been fulfilled in Philip II. of Spain, who had his own son, Don Carlos,
strangled in bed. The coincidence of the name Philip is singular, but the
remaining two lines he does not attempt to interpret.
_Century VIII.—Quatrain 42._ [I. 253.]
Par avarice, par force et violence
Viendra vexer les siens chef d’Orleans;
Près Sainct Memire[414] assaut et resistance,
Mort dans sa tante,[415] diront qu’il dort leans.[416]
_Translation._
By cupidity and abuse of power, force, and violence,
The chief of Orleans will come to vex his own;
Near St. Memire resistance will be made;
Dead in his palace he will ever after sleep.
Avarice was always the fault of Louis Philippe. By extortion and abuse
he raised resistance at Saint Meri; in and near the church he forced
the republicans to submission, _dort leans_ a play upon the name, never
again showed energy, but slept a sleep as of death in his palace (_dans
sa tente_). The insurrection that was quelled took place on June 5 and 6,
1832.
_Century IX.—Quatrain 89._ [I. 254.]
Sept ans sera Philipp; fortune prospere:
Rabaissera des Arabes l’effort;
Puis son midy perplex[417] rebors[418] affaire,
Jeune Ognion[419] abismera son fort.
_Translation._
Seven years will Philip’s fortune prosper well;
He will defeat every effort of the Arabs;
In his embarrassed middle period all goes against the grain,
Young Ogmion will overwhelm his fort.
Fortune will favour Louis Philippe for the first seven years. He will
repress the Arabs. But in the middle of his reign the Eastern question
will spring up, and cover him with disgrace (this culminated July 15,
1840). For the next seven years all will go against the grain, and the
new Republic (_jeune Ogmion_) will overturn his throne and his Bastille;
the Paris he thought he had so strongly fortified.
Garencières again introduces Philip II. of Spain, and there seems to
exist some analogy between these two kings. The Spaniard also was
prosperous for some seven years, and in the person of his brother, Don
Juan of Austria, beat the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto. Garencières
reads _Barbares_ for Arabs. Later on he had to put his son to death,
and was opposed by young Ogmion; the King, Henri Quatre, of France and
Navarre.
_Century V.—Quatrain 92._ [I. 255.]
Après le siege tenu dix-sept ans,
Cing changeront en tel revolu terme:
Puis sera l’un esleu de mesme temps,
Qui les Romains ne sera trop conforme.
_Translation._
After the throne has been held for seventeen years,
Five shall change when that term has run out:
Then, at the same time, one shall be elected,
Who will not be very conformable to the wishes of the Romanists.
After the reign of Louis Philippe, during seventeen years, five of his
sons lost the throne with himself; and with much manœuvring have never
been able to reapproach it. They were the Comte de Paris, representative
of Chartres, Duc de Nemours, Joinville, Montpensier, and Duc d’Aumale.
The election that followed was that of Louis Napoleon, whose mixed,
or no policy, suited neither the Revolutionary party nor the Roman
Catholics. There is nothing here but the seventeen years to connect this
with Louis Philippe. For the five who changed with the revolt would be
six if Louis Philippe himself were counted, and he certainly ought to
be. The concluding two lines are very vague, and may or may not belong
to Louis Napoleon. I merely cite it, as one of the ingenuities of M. le
Pelletier.
There are three prophecies cited relating to the Duc de Chartres, which
seem fairly well interpreted; and very wonderful they would be if they
stood alone or related to any one whose fate was of any importance in the
opening scroll of history. All the little interest of Louis Philippe is
centred in himself, and therefore I omit the three quatrains relating to
his son, not because they are not curious, if rightly interpreted of the
son, but that, even supposing them to be so, the Duc de Chartres is a
person and a character not deserving of serious mention in history. The
gossip of a barber’s shop in Nostradamus’s own day would be even more
interesting to any rational investigator of human affairs.
REPUBLIC, 1848, AND NAPOLEON III.
_Century IX.—Quatrain 5._ [I. 261.]
Tiers[420] doigt du pied au premier semblera,
A un nouveau monarque de bas haut:[421]
Qui[422] Pyse et Luques tyran occupera,
Du precedent coriger le deffaut.
_Translation._
The third[423] shall be a stepping-stone to the throne,
To a new monarch from low position to the top;
He will as tyrant have taken a military post in Tuscany,[424]
And will seek to correct the defects of his predecessor.
The National Assembly of 1848 shall serve as a foot to Louis Napoleon to
step from private life into a conspicuous position. He had in his youth
been concerned in the Revolution of Tuscany, and purposed correcting the
defect of his predecessor.
This might mean that he purposed to guide France better than Louis
Philippe had done, or than in four years the Republic had done, or, which
is most probable from his _Idées Napoléoniennes_, to carry to completion
the policy of his uncle Napoleon I. I cannot think it refers to Napoleon
II., Duc de Reichstadt. The entire application of the quatrain is neither
very clear nor very important.
The quatrain on Cavaignac, I think, is hardly made out satisfactorily, so
I omit it.
_Century VIII.—Quatrain 43._ [I. 265.]
Par le decide[425] de deux choses bastards,
Nepveu du sang[426] occupera le regne:[427]
Dedans Lectoyre[428] seront les coups de dards,
Nepveu par peur pliera l’enseigne.
_Translation._
By the fall or ruin of two bastard things
The nephew by blood will occupy the empire;
In Lectoyre there will be deaths by arrow,
The nephew will fold up his standard for very fear.
By the overthrow of Louis Philippe and the Republic, two bastard
governments, Louis Napoleon will now succeed to the throne, a nephew by
blood of Napoleon Bonaparte; and, what is not generally known, he was
the only one of the Bonaparte family born in the Palace of the Tuileries.
In battle afterwards at Lectoyre (_coups de dards_ must be taken simply
as battle) the nephew will furl his standard through fear.
Writing in 1866, M. le Pelletier particularly remarks that the epoch
is left undetermined, and, as to the enigma of _Lectoyre_, nothing can
be known till the event has transpired. It may then be interpreted,
he thinks, in some of the idioms known to Nostradamus—Greek, Hebrew,
Latin, Celtic, Languedoc, etc. He considers the standard to present a
further enigma, and asks “What standard?” This difficulty I do not quite
recognize. The imperial standard that is adopted by him, whatever it
may be. To furl a standard is to close and shut it up, so that no one
will rally to it any more. It symbolizes that the cause it represents is
brought to the ground finally, and that it is no longer flying.
As to the word _Lectoyre_, we now know that, if it is to be interpreted
at all, it will have to be found in connection with Sedan,—the noblest
reminiscence connected with which is that it was the birthplace of that
great soldier and greater man, Marshal Turenne. He may well be called
_La gloire de Sedan_, whilst as appropriately may Napoleon the Little be
designated as _Cédant de la gloire_, with that furled ensign, _qu’il par
peur pliera_.[429]
After much difficulty and searching I have at last come upon two old
maps, printed at Amsterdam by Blaeuw; the one dated 1620 and the other
1650, styled “Les Soverainetez de Sedan.” In both of these the embattled
town of Sedan is given, as seated on the right bank of the river Meuse,
whilst on the left bank is shown an extensive territory named _Grand
Torcy_ and _Petit Torcy_. In another map it is given as _Torsy_. These
maps give no indication of the points of the compass. But from another
map, indicating them, the river-bend on which the town is seated appears
to run from east to west; and, if so, Torcy lies south or south-west
of Sedan. In a more modern map it appears as _Le Grand Torcy_ and
is described as lying “sur la route impériale de Mezieres à Sedan.”
Evidently therefore we are entitled to place _Le Torcy_ at Sedan. The
French must determine for themselves, by their military bureau, whether
the French camp was pitched in the meadows of _Le Torcy_; but nothing
can alter the great fact, as now for the first time made plain, that the
_Nepveu du sang_ furled his standard for ever at Sedan or _Lectoyre_,
as the oracle gives it. Now _Lectoyre_ is the precise anagram, letter
for letter, of _Le Torcey_, though the commoner spelling is without
the second _e_, _Le Torcy_. If we are to reckon this as being a chance
coincidence, my only further comment will be, that such chance as this is
quite as miraculous as any miracle in the world could be.
As regards the words “_nepveu du sang_,” there was a caricature very
popular in France at the time of the candidature for the French
presidency, consisting of two pictures. In one the Prince de Joinville
was commending himself to the French people for election, having the
young Comte de Paris by the hand, and saying, “I am the uncle of my
nephew.” On the other side Louis Napoleon presses his suit by pointing
to a statuette of Napoleon Bonaparte and uttering the words, “I am the
nephew of my uncle;” showing how characteristically _nepveu du sang_
designates Prince Louis Napoleon. He may almost be said to have chosen it
himself as a cognomen.
_Century VIII.—Quatrain 44._ [I. 267.]
Le procrée naturel d’Ogmion[430]
De sept à neuf du chemin destorner:
A roy de longue amy et[431] au my hom[432]
Doit à Navarre fort de Pau prosterner.
I propose here to make the meaning as clear as I can without a
translation.
Napoleon III. (_le procrée_), the natural offspring of the French
Republic (Ogmion), will turn from the right road for seven or nine years
before his fall. Le Pelletier interprets otherwise. He says that the war
in Italy began in the seventh year of the Empire, 1869, and from that
date throughout the nine following years he changed his policy. I think
the line means that from seven to nine years before the end of his reign
he changed his policy. That is to say, from seven years previous to
the close of his reign, when Charles August Louis, Duc de Morny, died,
_i.e._ in 1865; and even for two years previously to that, things took a
different turn. De Morny no longer exercised active control, and his was
the head that had guided all along. When he died, all ran to distruction.
The _roi de longue_ and his friend _my hom_, Le Pelletier states to be
Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi; one of long race and one of low birth,
the tallow-smelter. I think it is Frederic William, _de longue vie_,
and Bismarck, the _bi-valve man_, which it becomes, if we read it as
_my-homme_. I have a great idea that _à Navarre_ is a misprint for _le
nepveu_. Whether _fort de Pau_ may mean with his health re-established
by staying at Pau or not, I cannot say. But, anyhow, I think that the
two last lines are to be read together, and that he is to prostrate
himself to the King and his friend. Louis Napoleon’s whole reign must be
represented as a failure, if you read it with Le Pelletier; mine makes it
a failure during the last seven to nine years. My King and friend bring
about the catastrophe far below the date that his will do. My emendation
to _le nepveu_ certainly clarifies the meaning. The explanation of Pau is
not quite so comprehensible as I could wish; had _Ham_ been a variant it
would have spoken for itself.
The Quatrain 53 of Century VIII., which I have already explained as the
flotilla of Napoleon Bonaparte, M. le Pelletier fixes as the ludicrous
Boulogne expedition of Louis Napoleon, and the Italian campaign after he
became Emperor; but I think he entirely fails in reading the symbols.
_Century V.—Quatrain 8._ [I. 270.]
Sera laissé feu vif, mort caché,
Dedans les globes, horrible espouvantable,
De nuict a classe[433] cité en poudre lasché,
La cité à feu, l’ennemy favourable.
_Translation._
Live fire, hidden death, shall be left
In bombs, a horrible and frightful thing:
By a band at night the city shall be fired with powder;
The city seems on fire, it helps though intended to destroy.
Fulminating mercury (_feu vif_) in bombs in terrible explosion contains
death hidden. The city, Paris, will be startled with powder liberated
(_lasché_, loosed) by assassins by night. The city will seem on fire. But
the enemy (in spite of himself) will prove favourable to Napoleon. This,
of course, is Orsini’s attempt of January 14, 1858.
The next verse follows up the thread.
_Century V.—Quatrain 9._ [I. 271.]
Jusques au fond la grand arq[434] demolue[435]
Par chef captif l’amy anticipé,[436]
Naistra de dame front, face chevelue,
Lors par astuce duc[437] à mort atrapé.
_Translation._
When the peristyle is thoroughly demolished
By the chief prisoner, the friend being taken before,
A plot born of the woman, long beard and hairy face;
Then by cunning the leader caught will be executed.
The peristyle (_la grand arq’_) of the opera shall be completely
shattered. Pieri, the friend of Orsini, the chief captive, is seized
beforehand by Hébert, head of the detective service, who recognized
him in the crowd. The plot was conceived in the secret lodges of the
Demagoguy [_de Dame_], whose members wear the beard and hair long.
Orsini, the leader of the whole, will be surprised astutely by the
confessions of Gomez at the restaurant Broggi, whither he had fled, and,
being taken, will be sentenced to death.
I do not feel very confident as to this interpretation, but give it much
as I find it in M. le Pelletier.
_Century V.—Quatrain 10._ [I. 272.]
Un[438] chef Celtique dans le conflict blessé,
Auprès de cave[439] voyant siens mort abbatre,
De sang et playes et d’ennemis pressé,
Et secours par incogneus[440] de quatre.
_Translation._
The Celtic chief is wounded in the strife,
Seeing death strike down his friends near the theatre,
Surrounded with blood and wounds and pressed by enemies,
He escapes the four[441] assassins, by unknown aid.
The Emperor, slightly struck in the eye by a fragment of glass, shall
see his people strewn in death about the entrance of the Grand Opera.
Pressed by the conspirators, four in number, he will receive unknown
help; whether of angels or pure spirits, M. le Pelletier cannot quite
say. We now know that he had still to see Sedan; but it would be curious
if pure spirits had interested themselves greatly to protect the
cold-blooded murderer of the Champs de Mars and Coup d’État.
_Century VI.—Quatrain 4._ [I. 273.]
Le second chef du regne D’annemarc,[442]
Par ceux de Frize[443] et l’Isle Britannique,
Fera despendre[444] plus de cent mille marc,[445]
Vain exploicter voyage en Italique.
The second of the Napoleonic race in power will cause England and Hanover
to expend 100,000 marks in fortifications and war material. Fearing
invasion after the Orsini effort, he will then exploit the Italian
campaign, though vainly, as he will not reap the results he looks for.
This corresponds so clearly with what happened that probably most will
agree that it is a very remarkable forecast.
_Century III.—Quatrain 37._ [I. 274.]
Avant l’assaut l’oraison[446] prononcée,
Milan prins[447] d’Aigle par embusches deceus,[448]
Muraille antique par canons enfoncée,
Par feu et sang à mercy peu receus.
_Translation._
Before assault a harangue is pronounced;
Lombardy is taken by the eagle, being cut off by ambuscade.
An ancient wall driven in by cannon,
Fire and blood, but little mercy shown.
Before the declaration of war, the Emperor will pronounce (January 1,
1859), in the presence of the diplomatic corps, a threatening discourse
against Austria. Lombardy (Milan, part for the whole) will be ceded by
Austria at the Treaty of Zurich (October 17, 1859); Austria, an old wall,
will yield to cannon, fire, and blood.
_Century V.—Quatrain 20._ [I. 275.]
De là[449] les Alpes grande armée passera
Un peu devant naistra monstre vapin,[450]
Prodigieux et subit[451] tournera[452]
Le grand Tosquan à son lieu plus propin.[453]
_Translation._
A great army will pass beyond the Alps,
A little before a prodigious scamp will come to power;
He will drive the grand Duke of Tuscany
To his nearer home with astounding suddenness.
In 1859 Napoleon III.’s army will pass the Alps. A little before a
prominent scamp will have come to the front, who will suddenly and in a
most startling fashion drive the Grand Duke of Tuscany to seek refuge in
Austria (_son lieu le plus propin_).
We have to note here that Nostradamus, whenever he emerges from the
impassibility of the _secret estude_, it is to exhibit a profound
hostility to the genius of Democracy and Revolution. There is therefore
little doubt but that the powerful epithet here employed of the _monstre
vapin_ relates to the red-shirted Garibaldi.
We have now reached the point which covers the last of the Oracles
of Nostradamus that commentary has yet been able to lay before the
world with its meaning rendered transparent by the correspondence of
interpretation with an event in history. The number of such correlations
of occurrence with forecast falls immensely short of the number of the
quatrains themselves. In fact, only about one hundred and fifty-one, out
of a thousand. The rest give no scintillation as yet, but lie without
sign of existence traceable, dead as a flint, till the iron stroke of
Time’s heel shall develop the spark. _Lateat scintillula forsan._ One or
two Presages and two or three Sixains have been also resolved. Enough,
we trust, has been opened up to show what a treasure-house it is that
we have entered into, how rich in curiosity, if in nothing more. What
may still lie perdu in the bulky remainder of eight hundred and fifty
it is impossible to say; whether, though unidentified, they have been
realized already, or are yet to bud in the future. If nothing more be
ever done with Nostradamus than this book gives, still the work must
for one reason or other hereafter stand out as the most wonderful book
of its kind that was ever written or printed in this world. It has now
to go forth and take its chance, good or evil, of notice or of neglect
amongst the mass of printed matter, largely rubbish, that deluges our
life. It is certainly calculated, so far as it can secure any attention
whatever, to severely shock the prejudices now prevalent amongst mankind.
The half-educated will find it troublesome to read, and disturbing,
perhaps, to think about; whilst the scientific may even denounce it as a
locust-cloud of darkness mediæval in its tendency. Undoubtedly it must
have the effect that Nostradamus in his preface to his son (see p. 50)
says very graphically it will have, “que possible fera retirer le front à
quelques uns.” Although, as he says again, the forecasts may be clouded,
they will be understood by men of sense, and they will grow clearer as
ignorance dies out (see p. 54); which should be our care now.