Part 127 (2/2)
It was only at Salon, where he slept in the church of the Franciscans, that this astrologer was absolutely believed in. His ”Centuries,”
which appeared at Paris and at Lyon in no less than ten editions in the course of one century, entertained the credulous throughout the kingdom. In 1693, there had just been published a book of the prophecies of Nostradamus showing how they had been fulfilled in history from the reign of Henry II down to that of Louis the Great.
It came to be believed that in the following mysterious quatrain the farrier's coming had been prophesied:
”Le penultiesme du surnom du Prophete, Prendra Diane pour son iour et repos: Loing vaguera par frenetique teste, En delivrant un grand peuple d'impos.”[2763]
[Footnote 2763: The last syllable but one of the surname of the Prophet will Diane take for her day and her rest. Far shall wander that inspired one delivering a great nation from the burden of taxes.]
An attempt was made to apply these obscure lines to the poor prophet of Salon. In the first line he is said to figure as one of the twelve minor prophets, Micah, which name is closely allied to Michel. In the second line Diane was said to be the mother of the farrier, who was certainly called by that name. But if the line means anything at all, it is more likely to refer to the day of the moon, Monday. It was carefully pointed out that in the third line _frenetique_ means not _mad_ but _inspired_. The fourth and only intelligible line would suggest that the spectre bade Michel ask the King to lessen the taxes and dues which then weighed so heavily on the good folk of town and country:
_En delivrant un grand peuple d'impos._ This was enough to make the farrier popular and to cause those unhappy sufferers to centre in this poor windbag their hopes for a better future. His portrait was engraved in copper-plate, and below it was written the quatrain of Nostradamus. M. d'Argenson,[2764] who was at the head of the police department, had these portraits seized. They were suppressed, so says the _Gazette d'Amsterdam_, on account of the last line of the quatrain written beneath the portrait, the line which runs: _En delivrant un grand peuple d'impos_. Such an expression was hardly likely to please the court.
[Footnote 2764: Marc Rene Marquis d'Argenson (1652-1721), after being Lieutenant General de la Police at Paris, became, from 1718-1720, President du Conseil des Finances and Garde des Sceaux.--W.S.]
No one ever knew exactly what was the mission the farrier received from his spectre. Subtle folk suspected one of Madame de Maintenon's intrigues. She had a friend at Ma.r.s.eille, a Madame Arnoul, who was as ugly as sin, it was said, and yet who managed to make men fall in love with her. They thought that this Madame Arnoul had shown Marie-Therese to the good man of Salon in order to induce the King to live honourably with widow Scarron. But in 1697 widow Scarron had been married to Louis for twelve years at least; and one cannot see why ghostly aid should have been necessary to attach the old King to her.
On his return to his native town, Francois Michel shoed horses as before.
He died at Lancon, near Salon, on December 10, 1726.[2765]
[Footnote 2765: _Gazette d'Amsterdam_, March-May, 1697; _Annales de la cour et de Paris_ (vol. ii. pp. 204, 219); _Theatrum Europaeum_ (vol.
xv. pp. 359-360); _Memoires de Sourches_ (vol. v. pp. 260, 263); _Lettres de Madame Dunoyer_ (Letter xxvi); _Saint Simon, Memoires_, ed. Regnier (_Collection des Grands Ecrivains de la France_), vol. vi.
pp. 222, 228, 231; Appendix X, p. 545; _Memoires du duc de Luynes_, vol. x. pp. 410, 412--Abbe Proyart, _Vie du duc de Bourgogne_ (ed.
1782), vol. i. pp. 978, 981.]
APPENDIX III
MARTIN DE GALLARDON
Ignace Thomas Martin was by calling a husbandman. A native of Gallardon in Eure-et-Loir, he dwelt there with his wife and four children in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Those who knew him tell us that he was of average height, with brown straight hair, a calm glance, a thin countenance and an air of quiet and a.s.surance. A pencil portrait, which his son, M. le Docteur Martin, has kindly sent me, gives a more exact idea of the visionary. The portrait, which is in profile, presents a forehead curiously high and straight, a long narrow head, round eyes, broad nostrils, a compressed mouth, a protruding chin, hollow cheeks and an air of austerity. He is dressed as a _bourgeois_, with a collar and white cravat.
According to the evidence of his brother, a man both physically and mentally sound, his was the gentlest of natures; he never sought to attract attention; in his regular piety there was nothing ecstatic.
Both the mayor and the priest of Gallardon confirmed this description.
They agreed in representing him to have been a good simple creature, with an intellect well-balanced although not very active.
In 1816 he was thirty-three. On January 15 in this year he was alone in his field, over which he was spreading manure, when in his ear he heard a voice which had not been preceded by footsteps. Then he turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw a figure which alarmed him. In comparison with human size it was but slight; its countenance, which was very thin, dazzled by its unnatural whiteness.
It was wearing a high hat and a frock-coat of a light colour, with laced shoes.
It said in a kindly tone: ”You must go to the King; you must warn him that his person is in danger, that wicked people are seeking to overthrow his Government.”
It added further recommendations to Louis XVIII touching the necessity of having an efficient police, of keeping holy the Sabbath, of ordering public prayers and of suppressing the disorders of the Carnival. If such measures be neglected, it said, ”France will fall into yet greater misfortunes.” All this was doubtless nothing more or less than what M. La Perruque, Priest of Gallardon, had a hundred times repeated from the pulpit on Sunday.
Martin replied:
<script>