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

XVI.

French.

La Cité franche de liberté fait serue,

Des profligés & resueurs fait azyle,

Le Roy changé a eux non si proterue,

De cent seront devenus plus de Mille.

English.

The free City from a free one shall become slave,

And of the banished and dreamers shall be a retreat,

The King changed in mind, shall not be so froward to them.

Of one hundred they shall become more than a thousand.

ANNOT.

Here you must observe that the Author being a Papist, speaketh this concerning the City of Geneva, which he saith from a free City became a slave, when it shook off the Duke of Savoy’s domination, and became a retreat to the Protestants, whom he called the banished and dreamers.

In the third Verse, by the King changed in his mind that shall not be so froward to them, he meaneth, Henry IV. who having changed the Protestant Religion, to be a Roman Catholick, did undertake their protection against the Duke of Savoy their Prince.

Hence followeth the explication of the fourth Verse, when he saith, that of one hundred they shall become more than a thousand; for in few years the Protestants became so numerous, that they drove the Roman Catholicks wholly out of the Town, and so have remained to this day Masters of it.