CENTURIA IV · QUATRAIN XLVII
The Bloody Hand
Le noir farouche quand aura essaye
Sa main sanguine par feu, fer, arcs tendus:
Trestout le peuple sera tant effraye,
Voir les plus grans par col & pieds pendus.
The fierce black one, when he has tried
His bloody hand by fire, iron, bows drawn tight:
All the people will be so terrified,
To see the greatest ones hanging by neck and feet.
THE MASTER SAYS…
This quatrain relates to Robespierre and the Reign of Terror. It may indirectly point to future events, but another quatrain explains it in more detail. The main thing he saw was all the nobility hanged and killed during the French Revolution and after it during the bloody rule of Robespierre. Translators say the quatrain is about the mad King Charles IX, who killed for blood, and that it also relates to the French Huguenots. Indirectly, the quatrain may concern these events. They astutely noted this, since it was also a bloody time, but during the French Revolution much more blood was shed. The Revolution was an important event in French history and very prominent in his visions.