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Le Roy Roy n’estre, du Doux la pernicie,
L’an pestilent, les esmeus nébuleux :
Tien qui tiendra des grands non letitie :
Et passera terme da cauilleux.
Try as I could, I could not come up with a meaning for letitie. It is obviously altered to rhyme with pernicie, but more than that I do not know. I must leave this to the reader to figure out.
Lee McCann came up with Lutetia, the ancient name for Paris. According to him, this quatrain refers to the assassination of Henri III by Jacques Clement (the mild) and the house of Guise was not to attain Paris. I think the word change is a bit of a stretch but I give this to you in case it is correct because I cannot come up with anything better.
As written in the Almanac:
Prins & casptif n’arreste les prez….
Plus parfond mis eslené mis aust….
Renfort de seige, manubis & ma….
Changes le Sacre & Pace sus le p….
The almanac that I saw for this year had enough in it to convince me it was legitimately from Nostradamus. That said, the quality of what had come down to us was so mangled and so ruined that it was hard for me to obtain what was originally written. This quatrain, direct from the Almanc of 1561, is proof of the terrible condition it was in. And this was one of the better preserved ones.
As this is just a fragment of the quatrain, I am not going to bother translating it. I note it here in case someone comes across the original in a complete portion. It does give one a sense of the Almanac quatrains that may be lost -- forever. The list of months that Sève faithfully reproduced, likely from Chavigny, also indicates a sense of the missing quatrains.
Au pied du mur le centré cordigeré,
L’enclos livré foulant cavalerie :
Du temple hors Mars & le Falcigeré
Hors, mis, demis & sus la resuerie.
Le temps purgé, pestilente tempeste,
Barbare insult, fureur, invasion:
Maux infinis par ce mois nous appreste,
Et les plus Grands, deux moins, d’irrision.
Joye non longue, abandonné des siens,
L’an pestilent, les plus Grand assailly :
La Dame bonne aux champs Elysiens,
Et la plus part des biens froid non cruelly.
As written in the Almanac:
Joye non longue abandonné des siens
L’an pestilent, le plus grand assailly
La Dame bonne aux champs helisiens
Et la plus part de biens froid non cueilly.
Note: Not all from the almanac from this year was mangled and ruined beyond reading. This quatrain I was able to copy down, word for word, as Nostradamus originally wrote it in the Almanac of 1561.
The good lady has to be the French Republic. The champs Elysiens is either the Elysian Fields or the Champs-Élysées, one of the most important boulevards of Paris. In this case, an argument could be made for both.
The Greater is Greater Germany. On June 6, 1944, years of effort finally paid off with the Allied invasion of Normandy. The assault on German forces was instantaneous and severe. Within a few months the Free French Second Armored Division of General Le Clerc moved into Paris and, on August 25th, accepted the capitulation of the Germans in Paris. De Gaulle would make his formal entry the next day via a solemn procession down the Champs-Élysées, formally announcing the return of the Republic. And though there was some revenge taking on collaborateurs and German prisoners, the majority kept themselves aloof from the goings on.
This is the only quatrain from the 1560 Almanac for 1561 where the quatrain was not only legible, it was complete. It is also fortunate that the interpretation works whether you use the Almanac original or the Sève alteration.
Courtes de LOIN, ne s’apprester conflits,
Triste entreprise, l’air pestilent, hideux :
De toutes parts les Grands seront afflits,
Et dix & sept assaillir vingt & deux.
The key is the word LOIN. That it is a code word, and an important one referring to a person, is beyond a doubt – every letter is capitalized, displaying the fact that it is important. This word is also found in following Almanac quatrains: 1560 Novembre (November), 1562 Mars (March), 1562 Avril (April) & 1562 Decembré (December).
Repris, rendu, espouventé du mal,
Le sang par bas, & les faces hideuses,
Aux plus sçavants l’ignare espouvental,
Porte, haine, horreur, tomber bas la piteuse.
Mort & saisi, des nonchelans le change,
S’eslongnera en s’approchant plus fort:
Sarrez unis en la ruine, grange,
Par secours long estonné le plus fort.
Sarrez is either Sarre, the Saar region, or it is serrez, embraced. I can think of no other alternative.
Gris, blancs & noirs, enfumez & froquez,
Seront remis, demis mis en leurs sieges :
Les ravaisseurs se trouveront mocquez,
Et les Vestales serrées fortes riegges.
I cannot figure out the word riegges. It is obviously altered to rhyme with sieges. More on this I cannot say.