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1 Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 The Greatest Sinner Ever a novel by Eric Mellema http://www.nostredame.info/en/translatordutchenglish.html translator Dutch English: Maria-Bonita Kapitany © 2006 Eric Mellema all rights reserved http://www.nostredame.info/ 2 Thanks to: Maria-Bonita Kapitany Jack van Mildert Liesbeth Gijsbers Moene Seuntjens Marleen van Haeren Ria Adriaensen Els Pellis Guus Janssens Ronald Mengerink Arthur Hendriks Special thanks to: Trudi Koning Chapter 1 3 Chapter 1 "Brrr, it`s so cold in here!" "Stop complaining, Mercury; only thirty-one days till you`ll be turned around." "Who`s there?" "I am Hermes, your higher self." "Hermes, your visit is timely because those boring turns around my orbit are driving me stark-raving mad." "Well, I`ll tell you, Zeus has decided that your assignment is almost done. You only have to be of the flesh for a while before you get to shine." "And how do you know all this?" "I am the fastest one in the Milky Way, and I put my ear to the ground here and there, so to speak. Besides, it`s my job to relay messages." "How much longer do I have?" "Until you`re lined up with the Sun and the Earth, so not much longer." "Hmm, at least it`s a change from being a dead planet. My only diversion is causing shock waves and sun baths." "You might well come to miss this simple existence, my material brother, but please be patient just a little longer." A month later, an extraordinary birth took place on planet Earth. A person with unprecedented prophetic gifts was born. The astrologer`s birth in the village took place at the very beginning of the Renaissance, in the French town of Saint Rémy de Provence. In a stately mansion behind the market halls where the merchants had been hawking their wares for some time, the contractions had started. Reynière de Nostredame had carefully calculated the date of birth, but the onset of labor still came unexpectedly. The little one probably had a slightly earlier birth in mind in order to meet the optimum position of the planets. The noticeably large mucus plug, which closes off the cervix during pregnancy, had just come out. This was the sign that showed the end of the pregnancy was nearing. Reynière lost some blood and asked for her father, Jean de Saint Rémy to come; her father was the court physician of the Good King René, the former count of Provence. She lay on the bed, perspiring, and her husband, Jacques, who had risen to the status of notary public, hurriedly entered along with her father. The contractions were now coming regularly and were becoming more painful, until, at their peak, they suddenly stopped. Her father looked worried and felt his daughter`s belly with a professional touch. Relieved, the physician established that the unborn child was still moving and that Reynière was losing amniotic fluid at a normal rate. Regular contractions returned and the membranes broke; labor was now well underway. Slowly but surely, Reynière`s body made an opening for the baby to move through. The cervix, which during pregnancy is drawn tight, was now gradually opening. The peculiar newcomer was fighting as if his life depended on it and the expulsion stage was exhausting. The labor would take as many as ten hours. Finally, the little head emerged, the wide-open eyes critically taking in the world. Jean and Jacques were amazed and looked at each other with great joy. The shoulders were next, after which the rest of the little body slid out, without any problems. Chapter 1 4 "Michel!" his mother proudly welcomed the wet little bundle. Jean carefully picked up the slightly bloody baby, who was still attached to the umbilical cord, and put him on the mother`s belly. The boy was born with a caul*. Michel de Nostredame appeared at exactly high noon on December 14 of the year 1503, with the church bells of Saint Rémy loudly ringing in the background. His parents were overjoyed with their first child, who would have a safe future as a Catholic. Jacques and Reynière were both descended from old Jewish families, but several years earlier, all Jews had been forced, under pain of death, to convert to Catholicism. There was still a menorah on the table, however, symbolizing the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah, that was being celebrated that month. For these special holidays, the tradition was secretly honored and Jacques always read from the Talmud. This time, he ceremoniously addressed his newborn son, surrounded by the entire family, and told him that the Talmud speaks about the wonder of Hanukah. Michel, securely wrapped in swaddling cloths, only heard some paternal sounds. When the little one, crawling and later walking, began to discover the world, he showed himself to be a very curious little boy. He wanted to investigate everything in sight and examine every object. He enthusiastically attacked visitors and sometimes liked to play with their hair. He quickly expanded his boundaries to outdoors, where he ignored the other children his age. He thought they were playing aimlessly round and round. Once, he extinguished the fire in the fireplace with water and sat there looking at the clouds of steam with great fascination. During his first visit to the market, his gift came to light. The family was walking past the booths displaying wares. Because of his limited height, Michel was amusing himself with what was going on underneath the wooden tables: fish remains, rotting fruit, blood waste, broken jute sacs, an occasional rat chewing on things, and countless shuffling feet. His mother was keeping a close eye on him. The De Nostredame family stopped at a booth with glassware and wanted to buy something pretty for the holidays. In the previous century, one only saw drinking glasses among the socially elite, but nowadays glass was being produced on a larger scale, which made it more affordable. The eager market merchant quickly grabbed the most delicate bowl between his teeth, trying to impress the young mother. "You know, Madam, pottery and wood and tin dishes are functional, but very ugly. Glass dishes are all the rage now." Reynière cheerfully listened to him, while keeping her child close by. "There are several types of glass drinking cups available," he continued. "Look at this: gorgeous cups with hollow, funnel-shaped stems, and low chalice-type glasses with tall, graceful stems. Behind them are cylinder-shaped cups, decorated with polka dots." "And what type is this?" she asked. "Those are Berkemeiers, Madam, drinking glasses with a funnel shaped cup and a finely ridged foot ring." The merchant took everything out of the cabinet because the family looked like they had money to spend. Jacques thought the ridged one were quite nice. "The ridged ones are very popular," the merchant repeated immediately, "besides the low drinking bowls, cabbage stalks and Berkemeiers, of course." "What are those ridges for?" inquired Reynière. "The ridges or polka dots ensure a better grip on the glass." "And which ones do you sell most of?" asked her husband. "The glass drinking dishes sell especially well. Pouring devices, such as bottles, are very expensive." The specialist apparently was the only person in the area who possessed a grand collection of glassware and he proudly brought out his most beautiful bottle. The family was getting completely entranced by his products Chapter 1 5 and Jacques asked the man if he could look at the bottle more closely. Little Michel had been behaving himself in a most exemplary fashion all this time and was quietly looking at the half-filled boxes under the table. Above, Jacques grabbed the glass showpiece clumsily and it immediately slipped out of his grasp. The expected crash, however, surprisingly didn`t come and everybody`s startled attention focused below. There, their son had just effortlessly caught the very expensive bottle. He put the heavenly gift to his lips, whereupon the owner quickly grabbed it out of his little hands. After many apologies, the disillusioned family went home without buying anything. When they got there, the father, who got away with just a scare, was full of praise for his son. His parents left the boy`s upbringing to his grandfather. With the erudite Jean, he was in good hands. The former court physician and astrologer taught his grandson not only mathematics, but also ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew as well as the preliminaries of astrology. Jean often took him outside the village at night, so they could lie in the field together and look up at the stars. There, he told him that you can see the northern sky better in the winter and the southern sky in the summer and that the winter constellations, such as the Canis Major and Canis Minoris, can be easily found, using the star Orion as a guide. "When I grow up, I want to be a star too," said his grandson. "Funny you should say that. I was just thinking about the story where someone gets punished by being put in the sky as a star. It`s about Orion, who was chasing his seven sisters, the Pleiades. The sisters felt threatened by the chase and prayed for help, which caused the goddess of the hunt to come to their rescue and she killed their brother with one of her arrows. Then Orion was placed in the sky as a star. But I don`t know if that`s possible for people made out of flesh and blood too, Michel. Although, I just remembered, there is some mention of it in the old scriptures. So, who knows? By the way, the Pleiades are visible with the naked eye. Look, they`re right there," and Jean stretched his arm toward the black sky. "Those stars look like they`re touching each other," the boy remarked. "Yes, it does look that way, but in reality they are very far away from each other." When spring came around, Grandpa showed Michel the stars Arcturus, Regulus and the sparkling Spica, the brightest stars in the spring sky, which together formed the Spring Triangle. That summer, the stars were not very clearly visible and it wasn`t until autumn that grandfather showed the winged horse, Pegasus, which is often difficult to find, because it is up-side-down. Through these little excursions, Michel got to know the constellations and his parents kept grumbling that he and his grandfather came home so late at night. One clear evening, when Jean had once again taken his grandson out, the weather suddenly changed and turned gloomy. No celestial bodies were visible and Michel cursed the dark clouds that were gathering. That night, the little rascal was tossing and turning in his bed, which was separated from other sleeping places with long curtains, and couldn`t sleep. He was still angry and disappointed, when suddenly, the window shutters blew open and a furious tornado pulled him out of his bed. He just managed to grab hold of the window sill, with his body dangling outside. Reynière was woken up at that very moment by maternal instinct, shook her husband awake and together they ran to the child who was in mortal peril. Together, the two of them pulled the child back into the room and shut the window tightly. Not really realizing what had happened, they went back to sleep, and a short time later, the window was pulled open once more. Again, the whirlwind directed its energy toward the gifted child, with a seething fury, but his parents were there in a heartbeat and defeated the catastrophe before he was sucked out of the room. The shutters were nailed shut permanently. This was a lesson their son would never forget. No more cursing anyone or anything, he resolved. One day, a message arrived from Pierre de Nostredame, Michel`s paternal grandfather. Pierre and his wife lived in Grasse and invited the whole family to come and stay with them for a few weeks. Pierre had also been a court physician, in the service of the son of the Good King René. After his patient was murdered in ... - tailieumienphi.vn
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