Regarde vers les cieux, pontife, et lève-toi!
L'astre poursuit sa course, et le fer d'Huniade
Arrête le vainqueur, qui tombe sous Belgrade.
Dans les cieux cependant le globe suspendu,
Par la loi générale à jamais retenu,
Ignore les terreurs, l'existence de Rome,
Et la Terre peut-être, et jusqu'au nom de l'homme,
De l'homme, être crédule, atome ambitieux,
Qui tremble sous un prêtre et qui lit dans les cieux."
This ancient comet witnessed many revolutions in human history, at each of its appearances, even in its later ones, in 1682, 1759, 1835; it was also presented to the Earth under the most diverse aspects, passing through a great variety of forms, from the appearance of a curved sabre, as in 1456, to that of a misty head, as in its last visit. Moreover, this is not an exception to the general rule, for these mysterious stars have had the gift of exercising a power on the imagination which plunged it in ecstasy or trouble. Swords of fire, bloody crosses, flaming daggers, spears, dragons, fish, and other appearances of the same kind, were given to them in the middle ages and the Renaissance.