XVIII.

French.

Par la discorde, negligence _Gauloise_, Sera passage a _Mahomet_ ouvert, De sang trempé la Terre & Mer _Senoise_, Le Port _Phocen_ de Voiles & Nefs couvert.

English.

Through the discord and negligence of the _French_, A passage shall be opened to _Mahomet_, The Land and Sea of _Sienna_ shall be bloody, The _Phocen_ Haven shall be covered with Sails and Ships.

ANNOT.

In the year 1559. _Sultan Solyman_ called _Leonclavius_, according to the alliance made between him and _Francis_ I. King of _France_, was desired by _Henry_ II. his Son to send him some succours: Whereupon he sent some of his Gallies to scour the _Tyrrhenean_ Sea (otherwise the Sea of _Tuscany_) to give a diversion to the _Spanish_ forces in _Italy_, while the King by the means of the Marshal of _Brissac_, should continue his Conquests in the _Piemont_ and _Milanese_.

All what this _Turkish_ Fleet did, was to plunder and over-run the Island of _Elbe_, and to attempt _Piombino_ without effect; and because these places were seated upon the Sea of _Sienna_, called in Latin _Mare Tirrhenum_, the Author saith that both the Land and Sea of _Sienna_ shall be died with Blood, and at that time the Haven of _Marseilles_, which was called by the Ancients, Port-_Phocen_ was full of Sales and Ships, as well to go into the Island of _Corse_, as for other designs. This History makes good that _Stanza_ which saith, that through the _discord_ and _negligence_ of the _French_, a passage shall be opened to _Mahomet_, wherein it is to be observed that the Marshal of _Brissac_ doing wonders for the King in _Piemont_, his virtue got him abundance of enviers and enemies in the Kings Councel, which was the cause of a great discord among them, by the diversity of opinions, and this diversity was the cause of a prodigious negligence in sending to him relief, as _Turpin_ witnesseth in his History of _Naples_, and _Paradin_ in the continuation of his History.

By this discord and negligence, _a passage was opened to Mahomet_, his Fleet going freely upon the _Mediterranean_ Sea near the Coasts of _France_. And the reason of it was, because this discord and negligence did compel _Henry_ the II. to ask succours of _Solyman_, that the _Spaniard_ might be compelled to divide his Forces in sending some to the Sea-Towns, and so should not be so strong in _Piemont_; and thus must be understood the _French discord and negligence_, in the first and second Verse. As for the many Sails and Ships that were then in the Haven of _Marseilles_, to go into the Island of _Corsica_, the following Stanza’s are full of predictions concerning it.