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En lieu d’espouse les filles trucidées,
Meurtre à grand faulte ne sera superstile :
Dedans le puys vestules inondées,
L’espouse estaincte par hauste d’Aconile.
This quatrain seems to deal with the death of the wives and daughters of an important person. The vestals of old were virgins who worshiped the goddess Vesta – this was the only Roman deity that had a priestess instead of a priest as its leader and all the priestess had to be virgins. We can therefore take it that the third line refers to virgins, most likely the women of the first line. Aconite is an exceedingly toxic poison, whether it is here referenced literally or metaphorically I do not know. I also cannot tell who the spouce is.
Les Artomiques par Agen & l’Estore,
A sainct Felix feront leur parlement :
Ceulx de Basas viendront à la mal’heure,
Saisir Condon & Marsan promprement.
Artomiques is definitely a word whose meaning we do not understand. However, it does have a similarity to Atomics. Now, this could have two meanings. One, the standard atomics of today, which seems to make the quatrain nonsensical. The other comes from the atomics of ancient Greece, the old atomicists, which seems to give meaning to the quatrain. The ancient atomicists believed that everything was determined by the motion of atoms, a claim that would take over twenty centuries till a measure of proof was found. An estor is an old Anglo-French word that means blockage, mainly in a river. Agen, Bazas and Marsan are in France. I cannot find Condon in France, though I found it in other states. Still, I must accept that with the French feel to the quatrain, Condon most likely represents some other city, probably a newer French town or hamlet, if there are any.
Since the ancient atomicists were materialists who believed that everything, even thought, was due to the motion of atoms, it is likely a reference to today when materialism is so prevalant.
Le nepveu grand par forces prouvera,
La pache faict du coeur pusillanime :
Ferrare & Ast le Duc esprovera,
Par lors qu’au soir sera le pantamime.
The great nephew can only be Louis Napoléon. Known also as Napoléon III, he was the nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, the great one of the house of Bonaparte. Ferrara and Asti are located in Italy.
This has to refer to events that occurred during the Risorgimento, the presence of the great nephew in Italy demands that it can be nothing else. However, I am unable to place the exact events. Still, it sounds as if the Duke is the Duco di Parma. Between 1818 and 1847, the duchy was controlled by Marie Louise, ex wife of Napoléon. Afterwards, it was restored to the house of Bourbon under Charles II, Charles III and Robert I.
Du lac lyman & ceux de Brannonices,
Tous assemblez contre ceux d’Aquitaine
Germains beaucoup encor plus sovisses,
Seront deffaicts avec ceux d’Humaine.
I found a Lake Lyman, but it is in South Carolina. This could be Lac Laman – Lake Geneva, but Nostradamus usually spells it Laman, not Lyman. I used Theophilus de Garenciéres’ translation of Brannonices, however I cannot find the place. And where in the world would “Those of Human” originate? Of course, the last word could have been tampered so the quatrain would rhyme, a not too common occurrence but one that does happen. So, it is almost certainly a reference to another place. But where, I am uncertain.
Note: Both the 1557 Du Rosne and the 1568 Rigaud editions agree how the quatrain should be written, so the way it is written is undoubtedly correct.
Prest à combatre sera desection,
Chef adversaire obtiendra la victoire.
L’arrieregarde sera defention,
Les deffailans mort au blanc territoire.
This quatrain covers the retreat from Russia. For Napoléon, it was a disaster. As soldiers wandered off and died, some to the terrible cold of the frozen land, others due to Russian arms, the situation worsened. Napoléon, upon hearing news that General Malet had attempted a coup (defection) back in France, deserted his troops and rode back to Paris on a sleigh, leaving the troops under the command of Marshal Murat, who also deserted the troops to save his kingdom of Naples. Kutuzov and the Russians were the main victors of the Russian Campaign. At the river Brezina, the French were able to mount a defensive effort, but the cost was horrendous – over fifty five thousand casualties, most of them dead.
The Nictobriges par ceux de Perigort,
Seront vexes tenant insques au Rosne :
L’associé de Gascons & Begorne,
Trahir le temple, le prebstre estant au prosne.
I did not find Nictobriges, but I found something similar: the Rue de Nitiobriges in Agen. Very likely Nostradamus knew this road quite well while he was alive, he may have had his house on this street; we can take it that this is a reference to Agen. Bigorre is probably a proper name or an anagram for a person, though there is a road called Bigorre, located in France. Gascons are, of course, from Gascony, France.
SELIN monarch l’Italie pacifique,
Regnes unis Roy chrestien du monde :
Mourant voudra coucher en terre blesique
Apres pyrates avoir chasse de l’onde.
Selin is normally crescent, but here Nostradamus capitalizes every letter, indicating it’s importance. Nostramus’ claim, Christian King of the world, seems absurd on the face of it. But with so much of what he has written coming to pass, there may be some truth to it. Still, I would suspect that this refers to Europe only. The part about the pirates most likely refers to the Muslims who have made their effort to control the whole world.
La grand armee de la pugne civile,
Pour de nuict Parme à l’estrange trouvée
Septanteneuf meurtris dedans la ville,
Les estrangiers passez tous à l’espee.
Parma is in northern Italy. There seem to have been several struggles in Parma, but at the moment I cannot place this quatrain.
Sang Royal Fuis, Monhutt, Mas, Eguillon,
Remplis seront de Bourdelois les landes,
Navarre, Bygorre poinctes & eguillous,
Profondz de faim vorer de liege glandes.
Navarre is in France and Spain. Bigorre is a road in France, though I cannot find Bygorre. Eguillon and eguillons are completely unknown to me. Theophilus de Garencieres has Aiguilon instead of Eguilon on line 1, and aiguillons, spurs, on line 3. This does not render the quatrain any more understandable and is most likely inaccurate.
Pres du grande fleuve, grand fosse, terre egeste,
En quinze pars fera l’eau divisee :
La cité prinse, feu, fang, crys conflict metre,
Et la plus part concerne au collisee.
Most commentators since the Second World War consider this to be the Maginot Line and the downfall of the French Army in 1940. And they do have a point. Fosse, most normally translated as pit (as I did) can also be translated as ditch. The Maginot Line was a line of defensive fortifications, dug into the earth and erected. Though it had seventeen sections, fifteen were facing the Germans, Luxembourg and the southern part of Belgium. The remaining two sections were facing Switzerland. The last two lines of the quatrain would refer to the attack of Paris. However, Nostradamus says that it is the water that will divide it into fifteen parts. The divisions in the Maginot line were administrative, but only a few actual divisions by the waters occurred. Therefore, this cannot refer to the Maginot line.
However, there were a few more walls in the Second World War. One of these, the Atlantic Wall, was also a series of earthworks and defenses that stretched from the southern part of Western France to the Northern Tip of Norway. Though in places it was not very well developed, in other places there were pits, earthworks and erections, much like the Maginot line. Also, it was divided into fifteen parts by fourteen major waters. These waters are as follows: La Gironde, the Loire River, the Bay of Brest (exact name I do not know), the Seine River, the Somme river, the Scheldt Estuary, the Meuse Estuary, the Rhine River, the Zuider Zee, the Ems River, the Esser River, the Elb River, the Nissum Bredning in Denmark and the North Sea.
With this in mind, the city is still Paris, only it is 1944 instead of 1940. Also, this time, the fighting is bloodier, more savage, with no inch given or taken without great loss of life, especially in the area of the British Expeditionary Force. And, unlike the attack in 1940 which saw the French basically give up, both sides concentrated with great skill on the fighting involved, though thanks to their lack of air power the Germans kept losing.