"But all is over; the moons are passed. The old man of Sion cries to God from his afflicted heart; and behold! the mighty one is blinded for his crimes. He leaves the great city with an army so mighty, that none ever was seen to be compared to it. But no warrior will be able to withstand the power of the heavens; and behold! the third part, and again the third part, of his army has perished by the cold of the Almighty. Two lustres have passed since the age of desolation; the widows and the orphans have cried aloud to the Lord, and behold! God is no longer deaf. The mighty, that have been humbled, take courage, and combine to overthrow the man of power. Behold, the ancient blood of centuries is with them, and resumes its place and its abode in the great city; the great man returns humbled to the country beyond the sea from which he came. God alone is great! The eleventh moon has not yet shone, and the bloody scourge of the Lord returns to the great city; the ancient blood quits it. God alone is great! He loves his people, and has blood in abhorrence; the fifth moon has shone upon many warriors from the east. Gaul is covered with men, and with machines of war; all is finished with the man of the sea. Behold again returned the ancient blood of the Cap! God ordains peace, that His holy name be blessed. Therefore shall great peace reign throughout Celtic Gaul. The white flower is greatly in honour, and the temples of the Lord resound with many holy canticles. But the sons of Brutus view with anger the white flower, and obtain a powerful edict, and God in consequence is angry on account of the elect, and because the holy day is much profaned; nevertheless God will await a return to Him during eighteen times twelve moons. God alone is great! He purifies His people by many tribulations; but an end will also come upon the wicked. At this time a great conspiracy against the white flower moves in the dark, by the designs of an accursed band; and the poor old blood of the Cap leaves the great city, and the sons of Brutus increase mightily. Hark! how the servants of the Lord cry aloud to him! The arrows of the Lord are steeped in His wrath for the hearts of the wicked. Woe to Celtic Gaul! The cock will efface the white flower; and a powerful one will call himself king of the people. There will be a great commotion among men, for the crown will be placed by the hands of workmen who have combated in the great city. God alone is great! The reign of the wicked will wax more powerful; but let them hasten, for behold! the opinions of the men of Celtic Gaul are in collision, and confusion is in all minds."
It must here be again remarked that, as regards the accomplishment of the events which follow immediately in the prophecy, the writer has himself seen this record in a printed form—since the fulfilment, it is true, but in a newspaper published in the year 1839.
"The king of the people will be seen very weak: many of the wicked will be against him; but he was ill-seated; and, behold! God hurls him down." How striking is the expression, "mal assis!" To proceed: "Howl, ye sons of Brutus! Call unto you the beasts that are about to devour you. Great God! what a noise of arms! a full number of moons is not yet completed, and, behold, many warriors are coming!"
This advance of many warriors upon the capital is an event which, according to the prophecy, must be accomplished before a full number of moons is completed, or, it would seem, within the year from the date of the outbreak of the Revolution. These warriors are not said to come from any foreign lands. May they be supposed—in accepting the truth of the prediction—to refer to the march of the national guards of the departments upon Paris, from all parts of France, at the time of the outbreak of June? or do the words remain still to be verified in a more striking manner? The period of the "ten times six moons, and yet again six times ten moons," of which mention is about to be made, is peculiarly vague and uncertain, as are the predictions, as far as time is concerned, of all the events to come. According to the calculation adopted, this period of time would be that of about nine years and a quarter. Is the accomplishment of the awful prediction that follows, to be delayed for such a space of time? An enlightened churchman has conceived that this calculation of moons refers to the past period, during which the church was oppressed, and the anger of the Lord excited in the first French Revolution, when the "measure of wrath was filled." But, then, is the desolation to come to be accomplished also, like "the advance of the many warriors," before "a full number of moons is completed"—i. e., within a year? This is one of the mysterious obscurities already alluded to, which are the attributes of all prophecy, and of which time alone can give a solution—if a solution is to be given. The details relative to the more immediately ensuing events are precise enough: it is only the date of their accomplishment that seems involved in the dimness of insolvable obscurity. Thus runs the denunciation—the prediction of desolation to be poured out like another "vial of wrath" over the doomed city of Paris.
"It is done! The mountain of the Lord hath cried in its affliction unto God. The sons of Judah have cried unto God from the land of the foreigner; and, behold! God is no longer deaf. What fire accompanies His arrows! Ten times six moons, and yet again six times ten moons, have fed His wrath. Woe to the great city! Behold the kings armed by the Lord! But already hath fire levelled thee with the earth. Yet the faithful shall not perish. God hath heard their prayer. The place of crime is purified by fire. The waters of the great stream have rolled on towards the sea all crimsoned with blood. Gaul, as it were dismembered, is about to reunite. God loves peace. Come, young prince, quit the isle of captivity. Listen! from the lion to the white flower! come!"
It may be well understood now why the republican government of France attaches so much importance to the fact of the propagation of this prophecy, which formally predicts the return of the last bud of the white flower, or lily of the Bourbons. Its publication was looked upon as a manœuvre of the Legitimist faction, to prepare the minds of men for the advent of Henri V., and, by exciting men's imaginations, to tend towards the accomplishment of the prediction—with the foreknowledge that hazarded predictions will often help to accomplish themselves by the very natural course of events which they, in themselves, produce. At all events, the promulgators of such a prophecy, which definitively predicted the overthrow of the republic, were to be considered as being among its enemies, and were carefully watched in their movements as such. The writer of the present paper, however, who was in Paris during the period when the "Previsions of Orval" first began to create a sensation, can confidently assert that copies were handed about, even among the silenced Legitimists, as curious and interesting documents only, and without the least pretence of that arrière pensée, which the government of the republic chose to ascribe to its circulation. The allusion to the "lion," is peculiarly obscure. Belgium and England are the only countries that bear a lion on their arms. A union with a daughter of the dynasty reigning in the former, can scarcely be contemplated, since the young prince alluded to is already married. A strict alliance with one or the other country—or perhaps more especially with England, as more generally typically represented by the lion—might be supposed to bear out the fulfilment of the prediction. The Orval prophecy then goes on to predict the firm establishment of the child of the "white flower" on his throne.
"What is foreseen, that God wills. The ancient blood of centuries will again terminate long struggles. A sole pastor will be seen in Celtic Gaul. The man made powerful by God will be firmly seated. Peace will be established by many wise laws. So sage and prudent will be the offspring of the Cap, that God will be thought to be with him. Thanks to the Father of Mercies, the Holy Sion chants again in her temples to the glory of one Lord Almighty."
The future previsions of the prophecy become necessarily more and more obscure; although those, which more immediately follow, are sufficiently distinct, much as their accomplishment may be a matter of very necessary doubt.
"Many lost sheep come to drink at the living spring. Three kings and princes throw off the mantle of heresy, and open their eyes to the faith of the Lord. At that time two third parts of a great people of the sea will return to the true faith. God is yet blessed during fourteen times six moons, and six times thirteen moons. But God is wearied of bestowing his mercies; and yet, for the faithful's sake, he will prolong peace during ten times twelve moons. God alone is great! The good is passed away. The saints shall suffer. The Man of Sin shall be born of two races. The white flower becomes obscured during ten times six moons, and six times twenty moons. Then it shall disappear to be seen no more. Much evil, and little good, will there be in those days. Many cities shall perish by fire. Israel then returns entirely to Christ the Lord. The accursed and the faithful shall be separated into two distinct portions. But all is over. The third part of Gaul, and again the third part and a half, will be without faith. The same will be among other nations. And behold! six times three moons, and four times five moons, and there is a general falling off, and the end of time has begun. After a number, not complete, of moons, God will combat in the persons of His two just ones. The Man of Sin shall carry off the victory. But all is over! The mighty God has placed before my comprehension a wall of fire. I can see no more. May He be blessed evermore. Amen."
Thus terminates the reputed prophecy of the Solitary of Orval. The conclusion has been supposed to imply a prediction of the end of the world; and, by the calculation of the number of as many moons as are mentioned, that event would thus take place within a period of fifty years from the present time. But it does not appear absolutely to follow that the "wall of fire" placed before the comprehension of the inspired Solitary, that he should see no more, should be referred to the "end of all things," because he has exclaimed just previously—"But all is over!" This expression he has already used before in a different sense. Any disquisition, however, upon the uncertain fulfilment of a very uncertain prophecy, would be again a discursive ramble, that would lead us much too far out of our beat.