In support of this opinion, he applies the following lines to the massacre of St. Bartholomew:
Le gros airain qui les heures ordonne;
Sur le trépas du tyran cassera;
Fleurs plainte et cris, eau glace, pain ne donne,
V.S.C. Paix, l’armée passera.
The explanation of Guinaud is, perhaps, more striking than the lines of Nostradamus. The “gros airain,” he declares to be the little bell of the palaces. In the “trépas du tyran,” he foresees the death of Coligny; and in the initials “V.S.C.,” he finds an unaccountable indication of Philip II. and Charles V.
The other analogies were equally far-fetched; and, as is not unusually the case, the absurdity of the annotation was visited upon the original work.
The prophesies of Nostradamus, like those of Merlin, are now nothing more than a literary curiosity.
CHAPTER XX.
LEECHES, SERPENTS, AND THE SONG OF THE DYING SWAN.
In the conclusions of naturalists there is much to respect. But we must beware of false inferences.