THE FORTUNE OF FRANCE, FROM THE Prophetical PREDICTIONS OF Mr. Truswell, the Recorder of Lincoln, AND Michael Nostradamus'.  
In se magna ruunt laetis hunc numina rebus,  
Crescendi posuere modum—  
LONDON, Printed for Jonathan Edwin, at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street. 1678.   

THE FORTUNE OF FRANCE, etc.  
THAT this present Age is an Age of Wonders, I think there is no Person but will acknowledge, who does but consider the prodigious Revolutions which have happened in the world within the space of sixty years last passed. Nor shall we need to travel so far as China or Indostan, or visit the Sunburnt Regions of Africa, to justify the truth of this. Europe alone will suffice, having been the Theatre of such Mutations as are not the least miraculous; and in which, as we have had our share, so likewise a very near concern. The Great Gustavus of Sweden begun the fatal Dance, and Germany still wears the marks of those Desolations which were occasioned by his Arms. Portugal revolts from Spain, France is overrun with Civil Broils, Great Britain and Ireland are all in flames and confusion.  
Scarce had the World begun to breathe the gentle Air of Peace, when the aspiring Spirit of France, big with the ambitious hopes of Glory, and puffed up with a vain desire of the Sole Monarchy of the Western World, raises fresh Commotions in Europe, and has set all Christendom in flames of War. What have been the Effects of these horrible Combustions are too well known already, and what will be the Issue, although we may from probability make Conjectures, God only knows.  
These great Changes and Revolutions which have happened in the Affairs of the World, have always been ushered in with some strange Presages and Predictions; it would be tedious to recount all the prodigious Comets, Visions, Apparitions, and Prophecies, which have in all Ages of the World given occasion of wonder and amazement to the vulgar, but of caution to the wise; to whom the consideration of present Circumstances compared together, have given great advantage to conjecture of the Series of future Events, and to improve those hints both to the public and their private good. A pregnant instance of which we have in Joan of Arc, to whose Prophecies the French were obliged both for Direction and Courage to clear themselves and Country of the English. Nor ought we to doubt, but that these Admonitions are the Effects of Heaven's kindness, as well as the Heralds of its anger; nor does the Divine Vengeance act by surprisal, but always first denounces War before it gins it; though usually these Portents and Predictions meet with the same treatment from the incredulous World, which Noah's prophetic Sermon of 40 years whilst he was building the Ark, received from the indocile People who inhabited the Earth before the Universal Deluge.  
I know the hazard of Interpretation, is apt to render a curiosity of this nature, culpable to some, ridiculous to others, and many times to those who are most nearly concerned in the danger; Caesar could laugh at the Predictions concerning the Fatal Ideses, and the Dream of his Lady, but it proved a Risus Sardonius, which ended in Death. Did I propose any thing with a pretence of Inspiration, or the confidence of un-erring Infallibility, I should deserve the censure of the wise, and which is far more insupportable, the derision of the foolish; but what I offer is only as a private and probable conjecture, and I leave it to every man's liberty to judge even of that liberty I have taken, and to the Event to justify or confute my Opinion.  
I will not pretend a familiarity with the Stars, though I do not despise their Influences; nor will I undertake to explain the Mystical Characters of the East; nor to tell you exactly which way any of the late Comets directly pointed; nor to unriddle all the dark Nonsense of Nostradamus'; but something sure there is in all these things. And although I believe there is some Wheat in all that heap of Chaff, yet I question whether or no my Judgement be strong enough to winnow it, and separate one from the other. That which I here offer to the view of the Curious and Inquisitive, is a very ancient Prophecy, though not much regarded: But who was the certain Author, I am no more able to assure them, than what will be the certain Event. However, let this suffice, that 'tis said to have been found in the Ruins of a Religious House at or near Lincoln, and given to Mr. Truswel the Recorder of that City, from whom it now borrows the Name, and goes under the Title of Mr. Truswel's Prophecy the Recorder of Lincoln. It was writ in an obscure and barbarous Latin, which does in some measure show the Antiquity of it, and that it was penned in those Ages, when Learning was at so low an Ebb, that the high Water-Mark of it, did not run above a sort of Gothish Latin; all beyond which was the Hercules Pillars as they thought, with the Ne plus ultra inscribed upon them, of Graecum est non potest legi.  
The PROPHECY. Lilium manebit in meliori parte, & movebitur contra semen Leonis. Et stabit ex una parte inter spinas Regni sui, cujus Regnum est in Terra Lunae, per totum Orbem timendum. Et veniet Filius hominis ferens feras in brachiis, cum multitudine Populi, transibit multas aquas, & veniet in terram Leonis, auxilium querens a Bestiis terrae suae. Veniet Aquila ex Oriente, aliis expansis radiis filii Hominis. Et hoc anno Castra super Thamesin peribunt, & magnus erit timor in toto Orb, & in quadam parte Terra. Magnd Praelia erunt inter multos Reges. & in illo die erit Pugna Cruenta in qua Lilium perdet coronam suam, de qua coronabitur filius hominis. Et quarto anno multa erunt pro fide certamina; caput mundi erit ad Terram. Filius hominis & Aquila elevabuntur: & tunc erit Pax in Terris Universalis. Et accipiet filius hominis mirabile signum. Et erit magna frugum abundantiae. ibit in Terram Crucis.  
In ENGLISH. The Lily shall remain upon the better part, and he shall be moved against the Seed of the Lyon. And he shall stand on one part amongst the Thorns of his Kingdom, whose Kingdom is the Land of the Moon, which is to he dreaded throughout the World. And there shall come the Son of Man, bearing the Wild-beasts in his Arms, with a multitude of People. He shall pass many Waters, and shall come to the Land of the Lion, looking for help from the Beasts of his own Country. Then shall there come an Eagle out of the East, and his Wings spread with the Beams of the Son of Man. And in that Year shall be destroyed Castles upon the Thames, and there shall be great fear over all the World, and in a part of the Land. There shall be great Battles among many Kings. In that Day shall be the Bloody Field, in which the Lily shall lose his Crown, wherewith the Son of Man shall be crowned: and in the fourth year many Battles shall be for the Faith. The Head of the World shall be brought to the Earth. And the Son of Man with the Eagle shall be exalted. And there shall be Universal Peace over all the World. And the Son of Man shall receive a wonderful Sign. And there shall be great plenty of all Fruits of the Earth. And he shall go into the land of the Cross.  
I do not find that this Prophecy hath been taken notice of, except by an inconsiderable and little regarded person, Arise Evans in a Book entitled, A Voice from Heaven, printed Anno 1652. and though he did strangely foretell many things, and particularly was always positive about his Majesty's happy Restauration, and with him of the Church of England, then trampled under foot by the prevailing Sects and Factions; yet mentioning this Prophecy, he has both given so false a Translation, and an Interpretation no less impertinent than ridiculous in some things, making the Lily to be Mr. Lily the ginger, and some such things as look like the effects of a weak or shattered Brain. Nor do I remember any Conjuncture of Affairs which have been in Europe, to which this Prediction could possibly be applicable except the present, to which it seems plainly and perspicuously to direct, and to threaten France with an inevitable fall from that Glory and Prosperity which now she does seem to enjoy.  
According to the manner of all Prophecies, and even this as well as the rest is wrapped up in a mysterious confusion, which leaves us no more to work upon, than matter of Connexion and Conjecture: But however according to the judgement of persons much conversant in Writings of this nature, there seems to be an agreement in Opinion, that by the Son of Man who carries the wild Beasts in his Arms, is intended the King and Kingdom of England, which is so distinguishing a difference, as no other Prince besides him can pretend to the Description. And possibly he calls him, the Son of Man, with a regard to his Exile, alluding to that place in Scripture, That the Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the Air have Nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to hid his head. He having had in that extremity of his Fortune no place of security or retreat, capable to shelter him from the malice of his implacable Enemies, whilst he was hunted by them from one Kingdom to another, his Reception being made a sufficient ground of War, as his Banishment was always an Article of Peace. And he seems farther to explain this, when he tells us, He shall pass many Waters. Which is both literally and prophetically true, for his present Majesty was forced for his security to pass and re-pass the Seas. But in the Figurative sense, by Waters is always in the prophetical dialect understood Afflictions, Instability of Fortune, Dangers and Hazards from the People. Now all the world is witness, that even from his Infancy his Majesty of Great Britain sailed through a most tempestuous Ocean of Adverse Fortune.  
And he shall come to the Land of the Lyon.] By the Lion is here meant the Leo Belgicus, the Belgic Lion, as the United Provinces and Spanish Netherlands, from the figure of the Country as it lies in the Maps, and from their ancient Ensigns are called, and by that Name commonly known; from both which Countries his Majesty expected Protection and Assistance, and did in some measure receive it: [looking for help from the Beasts of his own Country,] that is expecting Assistances from the Scottish Nation; to some of which the Name he gives them did but too well agree, with that part of them who endeavoured to make a prey of him, as before they had done of his Royal Father. This he further explains in the foregoing words, telling us [and he shall come with a multitude of People,] which shows his Restauration, and that he should come, that is, to be received with the universal desire and consent of his People into his Kingdom [which Kingdom is the Land of the Moon] either because it is surrounded with the water of the Ocean, over whose fluxes and re-fluxes the Moon has such absolute Sovereignty and Dominion; or to signify the great Changes and Alterations, the ebbing and flowing of the Tides of Faction and Rebellion which should be in that Kingdom, and especially in Ecclesiastical Affairs, of which the Moon is even in Holy Prophecies not an unusual Significatrix; the Church being often figured by the Moon, as shining by a borrowed light (Luna quasi luce lucens aliena) and being frequently under great Changes and Alterations, and never more bright and conspicuous, than in the darkest nights of Persecutions. [Which Kingdom, of the Moon, is to be dreaded throughout the World,] he does not say England, which here he calls the Land of the Moon, shall have dominion over all the Earth, an Island being altogether incapable of such a design or Dominion, but it shall be dreaded, which may well be understood to be meant in regard of the great Maritime Power, and Naval Exploits of the English, which has already made their name terribly known to all the world; and which is to be hoped such care will be taken to increase and encourage that Power, as well as to abate that of our Rivals and Enemies, as in future Ages shall render England not only considerable, but formidable to all the Earth; so as to be able, if not to give Laws, yet to hold the Great Balance, so as to make England terrible to her Enemies; who shall therefore dread their great Naval Power, in regard of their Ability thereby to make sudden Invasions and Descents into the Maritime Countries of their Enemies, and to stop their Trade and Commerce abroad.  
Thus far the Prophecy appears plain and easy, Events having in a great measure given us a clear Interpretation of it. Now Affairs thus standing, the Son of Man who bears the Wild-beasts in his Arms, whose Kingdom is the Land of the Moon, which is to be dreaded throughout the World, being come through many Waters with a multitude of People, he comes to discourse of the Lilly. By the Lily they interpret France, whose Ensigns are the Lilies, as they themselves discourse it by their Salic Law, when they tell us the Lilies spin not, excluding thereby the Distaff from all hopes of enjoying the Sceptre: Rather to destroy the pretensions of the English, than that they are able to show any such original and fundamental Law of their Crown. [The Lily (saith he) shall remain in the better part] that is, France shall be in great Peace, Glory, Plenty and Prosperity; which has been exactly verified ever since the conclusion of their last Domestic Wars, by the Policy of that great Minister of State, Cardinal Mazarin, during the minority of the present King of France, Lewis the Fourteenth; ever since which time France has enjoyed a constant current of Greatness and uninterrupted Prosperity: which as it has infinitely augmented their Trade, Navigation, People, and the Treasure of the Prince, into the Sea of whose Coffers all the several Streams of Money in France do finally discharge themselves; so it has elevated their minds to high Attempts; Pride being the usual Companion of Prosperity, and a vast Treasure the greatest spur to the thoughts of Ambitious Princes. The Lily standing in these terms, [shall be moved against the Seed of the Lion] that is, as before we took notice, against the United Provinces and Spanish Netherlands, who are altogether called the Leo Belgious, and give the Lion for their Ensigns. This likewise needs no great matter of explaining, it being so visible and fresh in remembrance, how the French began to quarrel with the Dutch: Though upon what real or solid grounds, since they never yet told the world, we are left to the liberty of our Conjectures; and may therefore judge it was the Child of their Pride and Ambition, Riches and Prosperity, with which unbounded desire of Greatness and Sovereignty some of their late Ministers have traveled long, and had they not strangely miscarried, 'tis more than probable they would have brought that Embryo of slavery which they had conceived in their brains, to a perfect birth.  
[And he shall stand on one side amongst the Thorns of his Kingdom, whose Kingdom is the Land of the Moon] that is, at the beginning of this War betwixt Lily and the Lion, England shall stand upon the part of the Lily against the Lion, though not without Difficulties, by reason of the Thorns of his Kingdom, by which Thorns they understand the uneasiness of his People, occasioned by this confederation with France, by reason of their Apprehensions of whose growing Greatness and Power both at Sea and Land, and his dangerous Vicinity they are said to stand upon Thorns, according to our English Proverb of expressing any thing which gives us a trouble, or which we cannot long endure: And by his adding [the Kingdom of the Moon] may further be meant, that this Confederation shall not be lasting, but shall change, as it has done, from Friendship, to a cold Neutrality, from Neutrality, to open and violent, because necessary, Hostility [Then shall come the Eagle out of the East, with his wings spread with the Beams of the Son of Man.] Here is plainly deciphered his Imperial Majesty of Germany, whose Ensign is the Eagle displayed, and his wings being spread with the Beams of the Son of Man, denotes the Confederation between England and the Empire; which Confederation shall influence, warm, and revive the drooping Spirits of the Imperial Party, adding new life to their endeavours, and fresh vigour to their enterprises, as the kind Beams of the Sun impregnates the Plants and Herbs, with a new Life and Growth. [There shall be destrdyed Castles upon the Thames.] Whether this may not have reference to the action of Chattam, or to the conflagration of London, or to some other great Sea action, in which the English may lose some Ships (which he calls Castles upon the Thames) and which may probably happen if there be Naval Engagements with the French, I will not undertake to determine, but as before was observed, there is no method or exact order observed in these Prophetic Discourses, and I am rather inclinable to believe it does relate to the Affair of Chattam, in which the English Ships were destroyed, with the great pleasure, if not by the Instigation of France.  
[There shall be great Battles among many Kings.] This is not only already verified no so many Combats, as during this War have happened between the Emperor, the Crowns of France, Spain, England, Sweeden and Denmark, but in great probability that still there will be more and greater: for the Power of France is too great, to be the Trophy of one Day, and there appears no safety to any Neighbouring Crowns, but by abating the Luxury of the Lilies.  
[In that Day shall be the Bloody Field,] This is spoken exegetically, as if one particular remarkable and Decissive Day, wherein shall be a most Bloody Battle, the end of which shall terminate in a most notable Victory, in which the Lily, that is France, shall be subdued, wherewith the Son of Man shall be crowned. [In the fourth year many Battles shall be for the Faith.] This seems to intimate, as if during this War, and before the final conclusion of it, by the great Battle which he calls the Bloody Day, France finding herself straitened should excite the Grand Signior, the Capital Enemy of the Christian Faith, to enter into the Christian Territories, according to the Example of Francis the first of France; and the present Commotions in Hungary, supported in a probability both by the French and Ottomans underhand, render the conjecture not much void of the Mark. This War between the Christians and Turks shall continue some time after the Power of France is humbled; and shall occasion many Battles for the Faith, that is against the Mahometans; but at last Victory shall declare herself for the Christians. [Caput mundierit ad terram.] I can easily make of this better sense than Latin: The head of the World shall be brought to the Ground,] which may be meant either of the Pope or Turk, who both pretend to that Title of Universal Head; the one as Temporal and the other as Spiritual Monarch of the World; and I leave it to the Opinion of the Reader, and to Time the surest Interpreter of Predictions, to declare upon which of these Heads, this Vengeance shall fall so heavy, as to lay them in the Dust.  
After this, The Son of Man and the Eagle, that is the King of England and the Emperor, shall be exalted; that is, they shall be in great Honour, Dignity and Power; upon which there shall succeed Universal Peace, and as the Natural Effect of it all manner of Plenty.  
As for the last Clause where 'tis said, [The Son of Man shall receive a marvellous Sign, and shall go to the Land of the Cross.] I confess I want an Oedipus to furnish me with a Conjecture, and will not therefore undertake it; in regard that Voyage has been out of fashion with all Princes, since they understood that it was an Intrigue of Ambitious Popes to send Princes to the Holy War, whilst they in the mean time made a Prey of their Prerogatives and Subjects at home.  
Thus far Mr. Truswel's Prophecy, which because it may be thought the work of an Englishman, and may therefore be supposed in favour of the Nation; let us hear a Prophet of their own, Nostradamus', the great Favourite of three Kings, Henry the 2. Francis the 2. and Charles the 9 and if he be a Prophet, he will it may be confirm the Truth of the former Predictions, applying his rugged Verses to the present Circumstances of the time.  

Naples, Palerme, Sicily, Syracuse,  
Noveaux Tyrants, fulgures seu Calestes  
Force de Londres, Gand, Brussels, & Suse  
Grand Hecatomb, Triomphe, fair Festes.   
In ENGLISH. Naples, Palermo, Sicily and Siracuse, new Tyrants, like Heavenly Lightning. The Arms of London, Ghent, Brussels, and Suse, a great Hecatomb, Triumph, and making of Feasts.  
Here are Naples, Palermo, Sicily and Siracuse, by name, threatened with new Tyrants, who should feise upon them like Lightning; which I think was most truly acted by the French, who did unexpectedly surprise Messina, and a great part of Sicily: And the famous Sea-Action of the French at Palermo, does even literally expound the Verses, nothing being so like the heavenly Lightning as the thundering Cannon, which never before did so terribly enlighten the Trinacrian shore. And let the Sicilians speak, whether the French have not been great as well as new Tyrants; since that place which was wont to be the Horreum Romani Imperii, the Granary of the Roman Empire, is now obliged to beg supplies from the rest of the world. But than follows [The Arms or Power of London, Ghent, Brussels and Suse] by Suse he must mean the Empire, Susa being the Capital City of the Persian and Assyrian Monarchies, and it being a common blind with Nostradame, to put old Names to new things. Those Powers of England, Germany, and the Netherlands being confederated together, shall occasion a great Hecatomb, that is a great slaughter, a Hecatomb being a Sacrifice of an hundred Oxen; this slaughter shall to the Victor's glory produce a great Triumph and much Feasting. But you will say here is the Devil of Delphos,  
Aio te Aeacida Romanos vincere posse.  
I say the Son of the Aeacideses the Romans may overcome.  
Who shall be these triumphant Conquerors? I answer, that the Victory shall not fall to the French, of which the Prophet's silence is a convincing Argument; for he would certainly have given some intimation of it, and whoever reads his Writings, where any sense can be made out, shall find, that he is not sparing to proclaim any good Fortune to his Nation, and it may be some things in his Book, and some Discourses with some of the French Kings, have not given them a little encouragement in their great Undertake. But let him explain himself.  

Bordeaux, Rovan & la Rochel joints,  
Tiendra autour la Grand Mer ocean,  
Anglois Bretons, & les Flamans conjoints,  
Les chasseront jusque aupres de Rovane.   
In ENGLISH. Bordeaux, Rovan, and Rochel being joined together, shall rove abroad upon the great Ocean Sea, the English Britons, and Hollanders united, shall chase them as far as Rovan.  
I would gladly be satisfied, in what Kings Reign of France till now, they were in a capacity to range the Ocean, or to oblige the Dutch and English to join for their common safety against them? And if the man be a Prophet, here is like to be some work at Sea, as well as Land; but it is to be hoped the French will pay the Charges of the War: And if the Dutch and English chase them as far as Rouen, they must chase them off the Seas; and I cannot imagine when such a pursuit shall be, that the Armies of France shall be in a good posture in Flanders: So that one wedge must drive out another, and this later Prophecy applied to the Circumstances of time and the Confederations now on foot, seem to explain the Riddle of the former.  
In another place he tells us  

Par la Guyenne infinite D'Anglois  
Occuperront par nom D'Angle Aquitaine.   
In ENGLISH. An Infinite Number of English shall possess Guyenne, by the name of English Aquitaine.  
And this I am sure there was yet never any attempt to do, since the time that Nostradamus' lived, nor any considerable War betwixt the two Nations, till this present; in which, if the English should land, possibly the French might receive them as their welcome deliverers from slavery, rather than as insulting Conquerors. But that which has often surprised me with the most pleasant Imaginations in the World, as the most ridiculous of all those Prophecies, is that which now is as much the occasion of my wonder.  

Celuy qut la Principaute  
Tiendra par grade cruauté  
Ala fin, verra grand Phalange  
Par Coup de feu tres dangereux,  
Par accord pourroit fair mieux,  
Autrement boira suc D'Orenge.   
In ENGLISH. He who shall with great Cruelty hold the Principality, in the Conclusion shall see a great Army ruined by a most dangerous Fire-blow, he might do better to make an Accord, otherways he shall drink the juice of Orange.  
Here is first a plain description of the French Dominion, which is certainly carried on with the greatest Cruelty, and managed with the most horrible Oppression, where ever their Arms have made a Conquest; and for their own People, they are most absolute Slaves. One may say of France as of the Grand Signior, wherever his Horse sets his Foot, the Grass will not grow again in seven Years. So great are the Desolations of Germany; especially Alsace, and all that pleasant, populous, and fertile Country along the Rhine, that there is scarce an Inhabitant, or a Village left for many Leagues together, to make complaint of the barbarous inhumanity of the French Armies, who have left behind them unexampled Instances of their Cruelty, in such spoils and ravage, as makes the Country look like the Fields of Sodom, when first covered with the Ashes of those flaming Cities. Such Cruelties of War as exceed all the most savage proceed of the Ottoman Family, and the most barbarous Conquerors amongst the Heathens.  
[But he shall see his great Army ruined by the most dangerous blow of Fire.] Not improbable, Heaven often measures by the Lex Talionis; Fire shall destroy those who have destroyed so many innocent millions by fire. But by this Fire he seems to intimate the force of Powder, the now common and terrible Fuel of the horrid Engines of War.  
[He might do better to make an accord.] Certainly this would have been wholesome counsel for France, who doubtless might have had honourable terms of Peace, had they prosecuted it in good earnest, and not rather as a Blind to lull some of her Neighbours asleep, whilst she might more easily cut the Throats of others: though how safe such a Peace, as must have left France in the Possession of so great Conquests, or any part of them, must have been to the rest of the European Princes and States, I leave it to the Determination of Politicians. But since France hath refused those Proposals, it follows, [That he must drink the juice of Orange.] This is what I have often laughed at, but now it seems to carry in it not only a very serious but significant meaning. For by the Orange must of necessity be meant the most illustrious William of Nassau Prince of Orange, that great though young General; and by the juice of Orange must be meant the force, power, and virtue of that Prince's Valour, Courage, and Conduct, which speak him an old Soldier though a young Man: And by France drinking the juice of Orange, if an Accord be not made, cannot be meant any other thing, but that to her disadvantage, she shall feel the Force and Power of that young Hero designed for Greatness and Wonders.  
And to animate that Illustrious Prince, I will subjoin but one more of the Prophecies of Nostradamus', which shows that he shall have good Assistance.  

Le grand D'Hongrie ira dans la Nacelle  
Le Noveau ne feraguerre novelle,  
A son voisin qu'il tiendra assiegé,  
Et le Noireau avec son Altesse,  
Ne souffrira que par trop on le press  
Durant Trois ans ses Gens tiendra rangé.   
In ENGLISH. The great one of Hungary shall go to the Boat, the new one shall not make a new War against his Neighbour, whom he shall besiege on every side. And the black one with his Highness, shall not suffer him to be over-pressed. During three Years he shall keep his People in order.  
By the great one of Hungary is meant the Emperor; by his going into the Boat, is meant his embarking in the Confederation. By the new one is meant, a new King of France; that is, such a one as France never had before : He shall not make a new War with his Neighbour; that is, it shall not be a new War, but the old claim to Elaunders revived. His Neighbour is the Spaniard, whom he shall besiege on every side, viz. in the Netherlands, Catalonia Messina, etc. But the Black one, that is the King of England, according to the old Prophecy, Rex ater in albo, with his Highness, that is his Highness the Prince of Orange, being confederated together by the alliance of a happy match, shall not suffer him (that is the Spaniard) to be over-pressed, During three Years he shall keep his People in order; but after that let France look for nothing but Domestic Insurrections and Rebellions, from a People overladen with the intolerable burden of a War, which might have been happily ended long before, if the obstinacy and ill Genius of some great men, driven headlong by their Destiny, had not prevented it.  
I might add, to render these Conjectures more probable, many other Rational Arguments, as that old and so often verified Prophecy of the Poet,  

Adgenerum Cereris, sine caede & sanguine pauci  
Descendunt Reges, nec sicca morte Tyranni.  
Ambitious Princes rarely go  
Unbloody to the Shades below.   
And the dreadful Instances of Philip of Spain, and the three Henrys, Second, Third, and Fourth of France, who all aimed at the Monarchy of the West, are fatal Examples of the Tragical End of vain Ambition after unlawful Sovereignty and Empire. And certainly they who will sacrifice the Blood and Treasure of so many Innocents', and the Interests of all other Princes and States to their own inordinate desires of Ruling, cannot in common Reason believe, but that they have almost as many Enemies as there are men in the World; and cannot expect a mild or gentle Destiny. For there is in all Mankind, Princes and People, a natural love for their Liberty, Life, Property, and Religion; and when they apprehend that all these are in danger of being invaded, and ravished from them, by the force of Arms, they will not only combine pro Aris & focis, and resolutely dispute the Quarrel, with their Lives and Fortunes. And they live in a perpetual fear of a Scaevola or a Ravaillac, to endeavour by a sudden blow, to free the World as well as themselves from the danger of Slavery; and to revenge those Murders, Rapines, Miseries, and Desolations, which have been the Results of such Ambitious Attempts, which brings into my mind another of the Prophecies of Nostradamus'.  

Tard. arrive l'Execution fait  
Le vent contrare; letters au chemin princes  
Les Conjurez quatorze d'une sect  
Parle Rousseau seront les Entreprinses.   
In ENGLISH. Arriving late the Execution done, by reason of the contrary Winds, Letters taken by the way. The Conspirators fourteen of a Sect, by the Red-haird Man this Enterprise shall be undertaken.  
I will leave this to the probability of what may be, according to what has been.  
To conclude, I wish all prosperity to the Arms of the present Confederation, and that by their Union amongst themselves they may disappoint the Designs of their Enemies; and that they would lay aside their Private Animosities, Heats, and Quarrels; which,  in such a Conjuncture shall refuse to do, cannot be the Friends of their Country's Interest, Liberty, or Glory; but will lie under the vehement suspicion of being corrupted and dazzled with the Lustre of Gold, to side with the Common Enemy, and betray their Country; nor will their Clamours against the French be able to protect them from so just a suspicion, but rather increase the jealousy; nothing being a more common Blind, than to look one way whilst men Row another; since it is most certain that no persons can oblige an Enemy, though with their personal assistance, to that degree, as they may by sowing Jealousies in a Confederation, and by crossing the Designs that may be form for the Common Security; which is in short to unbind the Faggot, that it may more quickly be burnt. Let the Malice of these Predictions be to the Enemies of Peace, and to the Authors of this miserable War.  Pax queritur Bello. 
FINIS.