The true prophecies or prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, physician to Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. Kings of France, and one of the best astronomers that ever were. / A work full of curiosity and learning. Translated and commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond.

by Nostradamus

LXXXVI.

French.

Par les deux testes, & trois bras separez,

La grand Cité sera par eaux vexée;

Des Grands d’entre eux par esgarez,

Par teste Perse Byzance fort pressée.

English.

Divided in two heads and parted into three arms,

The great City shall be troubled with Waters,

Some great ones among them scattered by banishment,

By a Persian head Byzance shall be sore oppressed.

ANNOT.

This Prophecy containeth three things, the first is an Inundation by which Paris is threatened, for without doubt he meaneth here that City, at the head of which the River Seine is divided in two heads, and makes an Island where the Cathedral Church and the Palace are situated, and then parted into three branches, one of which runneth by the Church of the Augustines, the other by the Quay of la Megisserie, and the third passeth under the great Hospital; this City then is threatned here of an Inundation, to which it is very subject, by reason of the lowness of her situation, and the confluence of several Rivers that meet at the head of it. The second part of the Prophecy hinteth that at that time, some great ones of that City shall be banished; and the third, that Constantinople, which was anciently called Byzantium; or rather the great Turk by a figure of Rhetorick, called Synecdoche, shall be much oppressed by the Persians.