AFTERWORD
Before he died Louis Vazart gave me a manuscript of his book Dagobert II et le mystère de la cité royale de Stenay [originally written/published in 1983].
The afterword of this manuscript was written by Philippe, Marquis de Chérisey. I have tried to translate this myself - once again - to give a flavour of the meaning ...... [if there is a glaring error perhaps one of my French colleagues could let me know?].
Some of the information Chérisey discusses had also been used in his novella CIRCUIT for this 'Afterword'.
The After-word, although it draws certain conclusions, can present information that is not essential to the actual book, but which is, however, still deemed relevant. Afterword may have an expansion to new research perspectives, or new problems to deal with, or even a more general question in connection with those treated in the 'main' book. Chérisey follows this idea.
Just before the 'Afterword' there are a few pages entitled 'Circuit' also written by Marquis de Chérisey. I include this short chapter too.
*************************************
0000 CIRCUIT 0000
Charlot puts the letter in his pocket. What does it mean - this funny way of playing chance - to send a letter he kept lugging around with him. The general, seeing his bewilderment, evokes his debut in the counter-intelligence services.
GENERAL:- A university thesis on the Sator square has led me to Stenay. There, I was surprised to meet the author of the "Adventures of Arsène Lupin' and who came to the same conclusions: If the name of Stenay derives from satanacum1, meaning the domaine of Satan [or the Satanic realm], then equally so will satornacum derive from the domaine [or realm] of Saturn and the magic square.
Maurice Leblanc could be my father and his science was outmoded but my way of dreaming suited him. Thus we raved about the squaring of the circle2, i.e. on the reports of the SATOR square and of the God of Saturn's golden age3 and his eating of his children, whose planet is a ball encircled by a ring.
The war of 1914 exploded, Maurice Leblanc had to leave, which left room for the Kronprinz, son of the Kaiser Guillaume II4 and master magician. I must say that the Kronprinz was leader of the 5th Army in appearance. Having taken his quarters at the 'Château de Tilleuls' in the Verdier House, the Kronprinz was photographed in an artificial trench but spent all his time searching for the treasure of Stenay. It came to the point that the Kaiser, fearing that his son was going crazy, sent him a squad of gendarmes disguised as guards of honour who brought him back to their headquarters.
In short, the three years I spent with the Kronprinz exceeds in splendour anything that I have lived since then. Maurice Leblanc reported the words in "L'Eclat D'Obus'5, a stunning Franco-Prussian novel which one literally has to read "between the lines", an amazing work which is not likely to draw strong attention, in which Arsène Lupin has a role of mine appearing.
Two works, in fact, complete "L'Eclat D'Obus' - they are "The Temptation of Saint Anthony"6 by Gustave Flaubert, spiritual father of Maurice Leblanc, and "Pelléas et Mélisande"7 by MAETERLINCK - Debussy, where Georgette Leblanc, sister of Maurice and who i met frequently in this role: The conjunction of these three books are accessible to all, to discover the treasure of Stenay. But a fourth document is lacking/missing; This is the correspondence of Marshal de VAUBAN8 in the year where, besieging Stenay, he made excavation's and discovered the underground passage. The Army Museum holds correspondence of Vauban, except from this year, but all is not lost, eh Charlot?
CHARLOT:-how come?
GENERAL:- they were found in the castle of le Rœulx, your grandmother, letters.
CHARLOT:-Roeulx was burned during the war of '14.
GENERAL:- and the letters were lost in the fire? For others, they exist & they will be returned to you as you're last heir to Vauban, but this day [is a long way off!] Do you believe that we met by chance? And do you believe quite by chance that you are placed under the invocation of the good Dagobert, second of the name, King of Austrasia, domiciled at Stenay, who died of an axe injury in the skull and this "death head" obtained by Mons via Regnier the Long Necked who put it in a silver reliquary and placed it in the chapel of the Sisters of Saint Waudrille. During the war of 1914, the head of Dagobert was returned to his town of Stenay in the custody of Jean II of Habsburg, who in 1919 gave it back to Marinette DENARNEAUD, domiciled in Rennes-le-Château, Aude, which was buried beneath the altar of the Church where he was disinterred again March 31, 1956, to finally appear in Carcassonne with Doctor MALACAN.
Passion poured out on the excited audience. This royalist general evoking a kingly line that had disappeared - childless - for over a Millennium was farcical. Not the Capetians, or even the Carolingians, but the Merovingians now!
GENERAL:- Carolingian's and Capetian's are only Ministers ennobled by the Church in their offspring. They have no more value than the Napoleonic inheritance. The democratic regime will have at least this advantage to show us that it is impossible to become ennobled only from your birth! However the Merovingians are our only source of divine right, to hold the 'signature', to be able to write "CLOTAIRE, King on behalf of Christ, endorses this precept". The year 654, the signing of Clovis II before forty-nine bishops and dignitaries. It was not until 1379 that a Capetian, CHARLES Vth, dared to replace the cross or Monogram by his signature. As for descendance they exist: Dagobert II left one and that is why there is so much silence that surrounds it for thirteen centuries. I know the King. And you know him much better than me.
CHARLOT:- me?
GENERAL:- and Anne also. The descendant of King Dagobert, who since 1962, pulls the strings of your biographies, that which every moment, is evidence of its magic.
ANNE:-Valerian Aries.
GENERAL:-Finally!
CHARLOT:- if he is King, why does he not proclaim?
GENERAL:- THE COMTE DE PARIS MAY CLAIM. THE KING IS.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 7
1) Heir to the Crown.
2) Op.ILC.pp.161 et seq..
3) S.D. Sicherheitdienst. Security Service Intelligence and counter-intelligence of the S.S. organisation - Rival organization of the Abwer, German intelligence service. These same police officers questioned Pierre Plantard in his cell in Fresnes in 1943.
4) Symbolism of the Royal colours: red, the Merovingians, White, colour of the Carolingians, blue, colour of the Capetians.
5) Rennes-le-chateau, Capitale secret in the history of France - J.P. Deloux. The parchments of Queen Blanche. Remind our readers that the circle and the lys are the arms of Plantard. In the Church of Sèvres, there is a stained glass window representing St. Louis & shows the figure holding a document bearing the seal and he is facing Saint Peter holding the Gospel.
6) The Fabulous Race - Author's note. Clou, Clovis, Clodoald, Louis.
7) The first book of Kings (VI, 5, 6, 8) refers to the construction of Solomon's temple; after referring to the portico, he called the 'holy place' (liikal) and the 'very holy place' (debhir), i.e. the room of the deepest [part] of the temple. It was accessed on the floor by a turning staircase. So in the Bible, there are three rooms and the middle one is just a central piece.
8) O.Wirth.
9) Stenay chevron's allowed decryption of the mysterious inscription. Note: Nowadays a stele has been rebuilt to replace the destroyed one and is located in a room of the Museum of Stenay thanks to the courageous effort of its curator.
10) Note: The parchments of Queen Blanche were rediscovered in 1955 at Mrs James, niece of the Abbé Béranger Saunière, as proves the official records.
AFTERWORD
by
Philippe De Chérisey
Point to the line. This is done. This book is now contained in the catalogue of my past and future works. The cover of my 11th manuscript borders not well. There is a current of air. It is early morning. I am in the Church of Sèvres9 by a yellow stained glass window attributed to Jean Cocteau, and another, the only one in the Paris area, which is of saint Dagobert II10, King of Austrasia and the churches' founder in the year 675.
"Gosh," - Philippe de Chérisey, who accompanied me - "I was completely unaware of Dagobert II here".
He thanked me. It's also interesting to look at Stenay as Rennes-le-Château. I would like to ask him if he is willing to compose an 'afterward' to finish my book. We are in a cafe in the rue Dumont-Durville. I let him see 30 pages of my manuscript and half an hour of meditation. Time to go back and forth to the super-secret pavilion where they stored the standard metre, this is my income.
- It looks good to me said Chérisey.
- Except that...?
- Waiter! Two coffees. Non? Good.
At the end of a certain silence Chérisey consults a pack of Gauloises where he noted six words.
Devil was the first one.
- At your place I would have paired these with the font in the Church of RENNES-LE-CHÂTEAU and the arms of Stenay. The first vision gave vertigo to Monsignor BILLARD, who came to inaugurate the Church and sees a reminder of the Heraldry of the second image, I believe to be quite rare!
- The words follow "magic square"11.
- Behind [on the back of] the carved head that the Abbé Boudet detached from 'Cap de l'homme' to set in the wall of the presbytery of RENNES-LES-BAINS, the famous square was engraved:
SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS12
found also in Stenay, on a stone cube in a very allusive manner.
- Readable/understandable only to insiders?
- It is for those who can read. At the time when Stenay was called SATORNCUM. It was enough to see the S.R.N.P.R.13 to recognize and see at a single glance the name of the city and the theme of the cube. SATOR passed to SATORNACUM, to SATORNAY, then to STENAY. Tracing the SATOR is to become the Messenger of Stenay.
As for the devil it must refer to the etymology of SATANACUM, domaine of Satan, where the name passes to Satenay and then STENAY. In fact SATORNACUM is to SATANACUM as Saturn is to SATAN. Perhaps on the opposite side of the cube was the head of Devil? [Rhedesium Editors note; This is a very strange comment for Cherisey to write. He knows full well that this head - has variously been concluded to represent Jesus Christ [according to Boudet?], or the head of Dagobert II [according to Cherisey].
Let the grammarians and researchers argue about this case that we will pass and drink this coffee that will otherwise cool down. Outside passes an ambulance.
The third word is "skull fracture."
- The skull of Saint Dagobert whose photograph appears on the cover of your previous book, a fragment [of it] was recently returned to STENAY after a millennium of absence. The skull of his son SIGEBERT IV, from Rennes-le-Château is today in Chalabre, in the cabinet of Doctor Malacan which is appropriate and where Gérard de Sède had the opportunity to photograph it. According to examinations by anatomists, these two skulls are of the same type and enjoy a similar ritual incision. The father was murdered by the Arphays fountain and the son killed by a fall from his horse in the vicinity of the source du Pontet14. We cannot better impose to the public the idea of a common origin.
The GUERCHINO version of the "ARCADIAN SHEPHERDS"15 features a skull & who can say if it was that of DAGOBERT II, father, or SIGEBERT IV, the son? The painter also arranged it so that the incision is concealed by a large fly called a horsefly. Monsignor ROSPIGLIOSI, sponsor of the canvas imposed the theme of 'The truth discovered by Time' & suggested reading 'discovery by the Gadfly'. Here the language of insiders becomes hermetic. In your hands the time that flies will discover the truth of the blood.
- Or else where the treasure is ...
- The fourth word is indeed 'Treasure'.
- The Kronprinz who spent most of the war of 1914-1918 in STENAY seemed to find a treasure. The treasure of Rennes that is spoken of too..
- Can I still open a parenthesis?
- Make.
- Waiter, two more coffees,
After a silence, Philippe de Chérisey resumes:
- The BEAUSOLEIL couple managed to persuade Louis XIV that there was a gold dépôt in ROCKO-NEGRO near Rennes-les-Bains, where stood the ruins of the famous Blanchefort castle belonging to Blaise I d’HAUPOUL. Nothing should have allowed the Royal power to dig up someone else's property. By chance, however, Blaise d’Haupoul had asked to reclaim the title of marquis de Blanchefort. Everything was set to proceed quickly on one side and very slowly on the other. In 1644, owing to Colbert's efforts, a team of German or Scandinavian miners landed at Rocko-Negro and started digging long tunnels which are still visible today. These workers spoke a language unknown to the occitans and lived in camps on the spot: discretion was thus assured.
Meanwhile, Blaise d’Haupoul is informed that all is well regarding the marquisat of Blanchefort, but that he is discretely dispossessed of Rocko-Negro where stands the BLANCHEFORT castle. On January 4th 1669, the Haupouls are made Marquis de Blanchefort. The trick had been to baptise "château de Blanchefort" , a mere pillbox measuring 2 by 3 m, at the top of a rock bearing the name Coume les Bains. The gold mining failed in 1667 and the miners decamped.
In 1698, Abbé André-Hercule de Fleury, aged 46 and aumônier to the Queen, is offered Rocko-Negro with its mines and, as a bonus, the Bishopric of Fréjus. He will also become tutor to the future Louis XV and will thereafter be appointed Cardinal. His Eminence dies in 1743 and bequeathes all his estate to his sister Marie, wife of Bernardin de ROSSET, who receives the title of Duc de Fleury, as well as the land of Rocko-Negro. There is thus still hope of reopening the antique gold mines. Through a deed signed in Limoux on June 1st 1750, André-Hercule de Rosset, duc de Fleury, Pair of France, lieutenant-general in the King's army, governor of the city and citadel of STENAY, lieutenant-general of Lorraine and Barrois, seneschal of Limoux and Carcassonne, passed on to Jean XVIII des PLANTARD this famous Rocko-Negro. This famous Jean Plantard, it must be said, had married his niece, Madeleine de Rosset...
At the Révolution, through a deed signed in Limoux on February 6th 1792, the Plantards sell to the FLAMANDs the right to exploit the lands of ROC-NEGRE. Through another deed signed in Limoux on January 26th 1967, Pierre PLANTARD buys back his property. In 1767, Gabrielle de Haupoul-Blanchefort marries Marquis Paul-Vincent de Fleury - just a homonym of Fleury, the Duke - who, through his wife, will come into possession of Bains de Rennes and Montferrand. So, the names of Stenay and Rennes are once more joined together through the Duke of FLEURY.
- Very pretty!
- Pretty, but sordid these issues of treasures. Where were we? Waiter!
- The two heads... [?twin-headed].
- It is precisely the subject of the fifth – declared Philippe de Chérisey, who viewed his packet of cigarettes - the head set in the wall of the presbytery of Rennes-les-Bains should represent a woman if one believes René Descadeillas in his book "Memories of the society of Arts and Sciences de Carcassonne" (1971, p.75). The curator says verbatim...Perhaps a replica of this head exists still on the side of the same rock (Le Cap de l'homme) and it would be a man's head. It is possible that it was part of a group of two heads, as it is common in the Gallo-Roman funeral monuments... ». Mr Descadeillas intended to signify to his readers the existence of a 'funerary monument' that would have had a double head ...
If, in RENNES the ancient necropolis remains to be discovered, the case of Stenay is much clearer. Your book recalls the discovery of the XVIIth century cave or vault where was discovered the mummies of three great uncles of DAGOBERT II around a table, sitting as formerly Saint Pierre [Peter] de Rome in his catacombs. The return of the relics of DAGOBERT II at STENAY, as also the revelation of the genealogy of his descendants, this is the secret of the following quatrain:
Roy exposé parfera l'hecatombe,
Apres auoir trouué son origine:
Torrent ouurir de marbre & plomb la tombe,
D'vn grand Romain d'enseigne Medusine.
The King exposed will complete the slaughter,
After having discovered his origin:
Torrent to open the tomb of marble and lead,
Of a great Roman with "Medusine" device.
(NOSTRADAMUS IX - 84)
The term Hecatombe means «one hundred tombs» & means a necropolis that is both at Stenay and in Rennes. In the matter of Stenay, located at a/on a height - for Rennes it is much clearer, involving a flood from the Sals which favoured the discovery of an underground passage leading to the necropolis.
As for "l'enseigne Medusine" it refers to the category of great Romans16 who wore, engraved on their breastplates17, the effigy/design of a Sun radiating its rays, quite analogous to the Medusa with tentacles.»
Here again the relics of King DAGOBERT II at STENAY are found associated with the necropolis of Rennes. My interlocutor cancelled [?] his fifth word: necropolis, the sixth is STUBLEIN. He lights a cigarette, takes a breath, and then continues;
-There was in 1812 in Paris, at the University, a student, a native of SAINT-AVOLD (Moselle) called François-Esprit-Louis STUBLEIN18, and without doubt well endowed for a descendant of the Merovingians, the Duke of la Rochefoucauld takes him in to his service. So this STUBLEIN is a resident of Stenay from 1816 to 1820, probably because of excavations. The death of the Marquise de POUPRY around 1820, heiress of François de Castagne, friend of the Duc de Fleury orientates his research in another direction. Because without direct heirs, the Marquise de Poupry had established for legatee, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, his nephew by marriage. Hence this STUBLEIN went from Lorraine to the Razes and married Eglantine MAURY with whom he had two sons: Emile and Eugène. Eugene, born in 1832, having married Joséphine LACAPELLE in Quillan, became occitan. He had the function of teacher in Quillan even and at Espéraza where undoubtedly he had among his students the young Marie DESNARNAUD, future governess of the Abbot SAUNIERE of Rennes-le-Château.
To round this up, Eugène STUBLEIN is interested in the weather. Several newspapers, from 1860 to 1870 issued his weather reports. This secondary occupation concealed his real motive where passing time was more important than changes in climate. Fond of astronomy and especially the marking of the zero Meridian in the Razès, he was led to examine the case of the tomb of/AT Arques, located between PEYROLLES and SERRES, north of Rennes-les-Bains [missing the last page at this time].
Rhedesium Edit notes;
1] According to a tradition, there was founded in the fifth century a temple to Saturn (or Sadorn), where it is believed that Stenay derives it's name [Félix Liénard, Topographical Dictionary of the department of Meuse, in 1872]. The word Sadorn itself is from the Latin Saturnus (“Saturn”), probably derived from the Etruscan; alternative derivation could also be from the Latin satus, the past participle of serere "to sow". Early records of the name of the village are as follows; Sathanagium, Sathonagium (714) Astenidum (877) Astanid (888) Satenaium (tenth century); Sathaniacum (tenth century); Sathinidium (1036); Sathanacum (1069) ; Setunia (eleventh century); Sathanacum villam (1079); Satiniacum, Sathiniacum (1086); Sathanaco (1108); Sathanacensi (1157); Sathaniaco (1159); Sathanai (1173); Sethenac (1208); Settenai (1243) ; Sethenai (1264); Sathenay (1276, 1399, 1463, 1483, 1549, 1558, 1585); Sathanay (1284); Satenay (1399); Astenæum (1580); Satanagus (1630);Satanay, Sthenay (1643); Stenay (1793).
The canon Vigneron, curate of Stenay from 1941-1966, fond of local history and learned linguist, wouldn't of course accept this etymology. He first draws up a rather impressive list of the ancient appellations of Stenay across authentic historical acts, then his deductions appearing well conducted, bring him to the conclusion that Stenay could mean `Town of Setinius', named after an individual of the 1st century A.D. native to the town of Setia (Sezze nowadays) 80 km SE of Rome… However, the word Satan must never be used to explain the name Stenay. Here are three reasons to exclude this explanation that Vigneron wrote:
1) The name Satan was wholly unknown among us when the name Stenay took shape, for the good reason that Satan is a Hebrew word that only reached us with the Gospel, so hardly before the 5th century for our region: too late to be the name of a Gallo-Roman locality going back to 50 B.C.
2) If Satan was the original meaning - the name would have been so easy to keep and we wouldn't have 25 different forms of the name but a sole form of this name in the archives, and the name «Stenay» itself whose penultimate form was Settenay, couldn't have existed phonetically or historically as the mediaeval Stenaisians wouldn't have admitted their town was called the city of the Satan. The French Academy only admitted the word «satanic» in 1798 and «satané» in 1878. Each of these two reasons is enough alone to exclude this explanation of the name Stenay. And here's a third however.
3) Nobody before 1850 seriously thought to lodge Satan in the name Stenay; there had to be found at Montmédy a former president of the tribunal who was the first to write on North-Meusian history a sizeable three-volume book. Jeantin, as his name is, had an insane obsession to explain place names that was to the despair of his family. His niece, the late Madame Pérot de Médyhaut, regarded him as totally misled in his aberrant mania to explain all place names by Hebraic roots and geological considerations that were so harebrained nobody cannot take them seriously…[Editors note; a bit Boudesque?].
The facade of the Hotel de Ville in Stenay, showing the visage of the Devil!
2] Squaring the circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the same area as any given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge. More abstractly and more precisely, it may be taken to ask whether specified axioms of Euclidean geometry concerning the existence of lines and circles entail the existence of such a square. Methods to approximate the area of a given circle with a square were known already to Babylonian mathematicians. The Egyptian Rhind papyrus of 1800 BC gives the area of a circle as (64/81) d 2, where d is the diameter of the circle, and pi approximated to 256/81, a number that appears in the older Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and used for volume approximations (i.e. hekat). Indian mathematicians also found an approximate method, though less accurate, documented in the Sulba Sutras. Archimedes showed that the value of pi lay between 3 + 1/7 (approximately 3.1429) and 3 + 10/71 (approximately 3.1408).
3] The age that man later called the Age of Kronos (Saturn) was remembered with nostalgia as an age of bliss. References to the Age of Kronos in ancient lore are very numerous. Hesiod tells of a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Kronos when he was reigning in heaven. They lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil: misery rested not on them . . . The fruitful earth unforced bore them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things. . . Similarly writes Ovid in the sixth book of his Metamorphoses: In the beginning was the Golden Age, when men of their own accord, without threat of punishment, without laws, maintained good faith and did what was right. . . . The earth itself, without compulsion, untouched by the hoe, unfurrowed by any share, produced all things spontaneously. . . . It was a season of everlasting spring.
Rabbinical sources recount that men lived under very favourable conditions before the Deluge, and that these contributed to their sinfulness: “They knew neither toil nor care and as a consequence of their extraordinary prosperity they grew insolent.”
The dominance of Saturn at some remote period in the history of the life of the peoples on Earth was of such pronounced and all-pervading character that the question arises whether the adventures of the planet going through many exploits could by itself be the full cause of the worship of the planet and the naming of the Golden Age - “the Age of Kronos” (Saturn). Saturn exploded and caused the Earth to go through the greatest of its historical catastrophes and this was completely sufficient to make Saturn the supreme deity; but it appears that the Age of Saturn is a name for the epoch before the Deluge; after the Deluge Saturn, dismembered, almost ceased to exist as a planetary body and when at length it was reconstituted it was fettered by rings and was far from being the dominant celestial body that would behoove it as the supreme deity of the epoch.
The “Age of Kronos” is so glorious an age that it is hardly thinkable to connect it with the period after the Deluge. The wailing for Adonis, Tammuz of the Babylonians, or Osiris of the Egyptians, deplored the end of its dominance, not the beginning of it. [http://www.varchive.org/itb/goldage.htm]
By extension the "Golden Age" denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. During this age peace and harmony prevailed, people did not have to work to feed themselves, for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance eventually dying peacefully with spirits living on as "guardians". Plato in Cratylus (397) recounts the golden race of humans who came first. He clarifies that Hesiod did not mean literally made of gold, but good and noble. In classical Greek mythology the Golden Age was presided over by the leading Titan Cronus. European pastoral literary and iconographic tradition often depicted nymphs and shepherds as living a life of rustic innocence and simplicity, untainted by the corruptions of civilisation — a continuation of the Golden Age — set in an idealised Arcadia, a region of Greece that was the abode and centre of worship of their tutelary deity, the goat-footed Pan, who dwelt among them. This idealised and nostalgic vision of the simple life, however, was sometimes contested and even ridiculed, both in antiquity and later on. It is interesting to note that PAN was a precursor perhaps of the Devil figure.
4] Wilhelm was born on 6 May 1882 in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg. He was the eldest son of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor (1859–1941) and his first wife Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1858–1921). When he was born, his great-grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I, was the reigning emperor and his grandfather, Crown Prince Frederick, was heir to the throne, making Wilhelm third in line to the throne. Despite being only thirty-two and having never commanded a unit larger than a regiment, the German Crown Prince was named commander of the 5th Army in August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I. The Crown Prince, eldest son of Emperor Wilhelm II and Crown Prince of the German Empire, is present in Stenay, from September 1914 to February 1918, to lead the Fifth Army. He resides in the chateau of Tilleuls and established his headquarters in the boys' school.
5] L'Éclat d'obus is a novel by Maurice Leblanc. Its action takes place during the First World War. The plot of the novel follows the wanderings of a character in search of his wife and of his father's murderer. Arsène Lupin appears as a doctor about the middle of the story.
6] The Temptation of Saint Anthony (French La Tentation de Saint Antoine) is a book which the French author Gustave Flaubert spent practically his whole life fitfully working on, in three versions which he completed in 1849, 1856 (with extracts published at the same time) and 1872 before publishing the final version in 1874. It takes as its subject the famous temptation faced by Saint Anthony the Great in the Egyptian desert, a theme often repeated in medieval and modern art. It is written in the form of a play script. It details one night in the life of Anthony the Great where Anthony is faced with great temptations and it was inspired by the painting which he saw at the Balbi Palace in Genoa.
7] Pelléas and Mélisande is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893. Golaud discovers Mélisande by a stream in the woods. She has lost her crown in the water but does not wish to retrieve it. They marry and she instantly wins the favour of Arkël, Golaud's grandfather and king of Allemonde, who is ill. She falls in love with Pelléas, Golaud's brother. They meet by the fountain where Mélisande loses her wedding ring. Golaud grows suspicious of the lovers, has his son Yniold spy on them, and discovers them caressing, whereupon he kills Pelléas and wounds Mélisande. She later dies after giving birth to an abnormally small girl.
8] Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban (1 or 4 May 1633 – 30 March 1707), commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age. He is known for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them; his ideas, starting from Pagan's "Les Fortification", were the dominant model of siegecraft and fortification for nearly 100 years. He also advised Louis XIV on how to consolidate France's borders, to make them more defensible. Vauban made a radical suggestion of giving up some land that was indefensible to allow for a stronger less porous border with France's neighbours.
9] The church of Sevres was founded by the Merovingian King Dagobert II in the seventh century - it was under royal parish Marie Leczinska. The first municipal assembly created by the Edict of 1787, had two members: the lord, in this case the king Louis XVI and the priest and nine elected members. This assembly met in the church at the end of Vespers or high mass .
11] In recreational mathematics, a magic square is an arrangement of distinct numbers (i.e. each number is used once), usually integers, in a square grid, where the numbers in each row, and in each column, and the numbers in the main and secondary diagonals, all add up to the same number.
12] Plate number 19 from the Eugene Stublein 'Engraved Stones of the Languedoc'.
The engraved head looks nothing like a Merovingian let alone Dagobert II and the engraving on the back of the 'head' with a SATOR square has slightly different changes to it [i.e. the greek markings? See diagram below]. In the booklet " Gravees Pierres du Languedoc " ( "Engraved Stones of the Languedoc"), attributed to Eugene Stublein, it is called an enigmatic anthropomorphic carved menhir at Cap de l'Homme (literally, "man's head", in fact), on the 'plateau of Las Brugos'.
The head is recorded by Stublein in his work as 'The head of St. Dagobert - carved in 700 AD on a menhir of Pla de Las Brugos in Rennes-les-Bains (Aude)."
The hypothesis of Stublein, in fact, is that the stone is a portrait of the Merovingian king Dagobert II. It is said that in 1884 the standing stone was removed by Henri Boudet, following an act of vandalism perpetrated against that sculpture by a young man with an ice pick. During 1884-1886 the head was given to M. Cailhol of Alet les Bains. We lose track only to find it later - it is fixed to the perimeter wall of the presbytery of Rennes-les-Bains with a label that mentions the excavation site. In 1996 it was again removed to be kept in the "city" museum in Rennes-les-Bains.
The most enigmatic and interesting aspect of this stone [Stublein's stone head] is that on the back side of the same figure the engraving of a magic square with some obvious anomalies. There are some letters, for starters, that belong to the greek alphabet, instead of the Latin one as the other (the "R", for example, are written as "P", which is the "rho" greek). The "O" have a central point (The alchemical sign for gold [SOL]? This sign can also be the astronomical and astrological symbol for the Sun, and the ancient Egyptian sign for "sun" or "Ra" in the hieroglyphic writing system. In the context of Cherisey who is talking about the squaring of the circle, this 'letter' could conceivably be mathematical - a point within a circle. Having a circle with the centre (xc,yc)(xc,yc) with the radius rr how do you know whether a point (xp,yp)(xp,yp) is inside the circle? i.e a basic equation of a circle - A circle can be defined as the locus of all points that satisfy the equation x2 + y2 = r2 where x,y are the coordinates of each point and r is the radius of the circle.)
As is observed in some squares of Templar origin whereas the acrostic begins with the word "ROTAS". The "N" central in "TENET" is written with an ambiguous symbol that can seem to be an "H" as a "Heth" of Hebrew. Are they transcription errors or precise clues?
Actually, to be strict, the whole story so far told, should be taken with [?tongs]. Although there are many references to the figure of Eugene Stublein, there is no proof or guarantees for the authenticity for each of these items. Many researchers are now convinced that Stublein never existed and that it is a pseudonym used by someone interested in the affair of Rennes-le-Château for profit. Some speculate that it is Plantard or one of his associates, as they are responsible for many false documents by names specially designed to provide a substantial credibility to the substrata of their major hoax that they had concocted.
13] In 1873 a certain M. Rivart, part owner of the old priory of St. Dagobert, had discovered an enigmatic stone, on which was listed the SRNPR letters, a kind of glyph wedge shape and a Greek cross next to the top, upper side. The stone, which became the property of Monsignor Mangin, bishop of the local diocese, was destroyed during the First World War. A reproduction of it was found in 1980 and is now kept in a room of the Cercle Saint Dagobert II of Stenay. The study of the enigmatic stone had a breakthrough when it was discovered the relationship between the letters, the glyph and the magic square SATOR. The SRNPR letters, in fact, appear in the Square according to a pattern whose shape replicates that of the glyph. Perhaps the Square provides another interpretation of the story? Or this is the umpteenth deception intended to divert researchers from the real target, adding wood to the fire already burning in relation to the story?
14] ..."and the son killed by a fall from his horse in the vicinity of the source du Pontet" - Oddly enough there is a Source du Pontet at Rennes-les-Bains. This is an illustration of the area from the work of Gourdon - and a map naming the area in Rennes.
15] Guercino's Arcadian Shepherds with the skull and horsefly?
16] Great Romans. In many instances when Cherisey refers to a great Roman he often seems to have in mind those Romans who ruled during the Late Republic Age which is dated to around 147 - 30 BC. During his term as praetor in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), Pompey's contemporary Julius Caesar defeated two local tribes in battle. After his term as consul in 59 BC, he was appointed to a five-year term as the proconsular Governor of Cisalpine Gaul (part of current northern Italy), Transalpine Gaul (current southern France) and Illyria (part of the modern Balkans). This eventually led to the Triumvirates and Caesarian ascension of 53–30 BC. By 59 BC an unofficial political alliance known as the First Triumvirate was formed between Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great") to share power and influence. Many of the 'Great Romans' ruled during this time.
We know in various writings that the Great Roman was identified with a kind of votive stone found at Rennes-les-Bains. In Circuit Cherisey also talks about entering the tomb of this Grand Roman [in the territory of Rennes-les-Bains] - he in fact kisses the tomb when he sees it'.
17] Depending on how you translate the word 'cuirasse'. It means the breastplate of armour worn by soldiers. In classical antiquity, the muscle cuirass, anatomical cuirass or heroic cuirass is a type of body armour cast to fit the wearer's torso and designed to mimic an idealised human physique. It first appears in late Archaic Greece and became widespread throughout the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It is commonly depicted in Greek and Roman art, where it is worn by generals, emperors, and deities during periods when soldiers used other types. In Roman sculpture, the muscle cuirass is often highly ornamented with mythological scenes. Archaeological finds of relatively unadorned cuirasses, as well as their depiction by artists in military scenes, indicate that simpler versions were worn in combat situations. The anatomy of muscle cuirasses intended for use might be either realistic or reduced to an abstract design; the fantastically illustrated cuirasses worn by gods and emperors in Roman statues usually incorporate realistic nipples and the navel within the scene depicted. Hellenistic rulers added divine emblems such as thunderbolts to the shoulder flaps. Another conventional decoration is the gorgoneion, or Medusa's head, on the upper chest, and often vegetative motifs on the pectorals. One of the elements of iconography that identify the Greek Athena and the Roman Minerva, goddesses who embodied the strategic side of warfare, was a breastplate bearing a gorgoneion. Other deities, particularly the war gods Ares and Mars, could be portrayed with muscle cuirasses.
Roman emperors - among freestanding sculptures portraying Roman emperors, a common type shows the emperor wearing a highly ornamented muscle cuirass, often with a scene from mythology. Figures such as winged victories, enemies in defeat and virtues personified represent the emperor as master of the world. Symbolic arrangements this elaborate never appear on Greek cuirasses. The cuirass on the famous Augustus of Prima Porta is particularly ornate. In the centre, a Roman officer is about to receive a Roman military standard (aquila) from a bearded "barbarian" who appears to be a Parthian. The Roman, who has a hound at his side, is most often identified as a young Tiberius, and the scene is usually read as the return in 20 BC of the standards lost at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The anatomically realistic navel (Greek omphalos, Latin umbilicus) is placed between the two central figures, slightly below ground level in relation to the feet and centered above the personification of Earth, positioned over the abdomen. Her reclining position, cornucopia, and the presence of suckling babies is common to other goddesses in Augustan art who represent peace and prosperity. Other figures include a lyre-playing Apollo riding a griffin, Diana on the back of a hind, and the quadriga of the Sun at the top.
18] Regarding François-Esprit-Louis STUBLEIN i found this written by Blanchefort on the following website: HERE - " The case of Eugene Stublein to which M. de Sede attributed the 'Engraved stones of [the] Languedoc", where the work of Venerable Father Courtauly was involved, a sample being deposited at the National Library and copies of which are distributed in mysterious ways, is easier to be elucidated. Stublein existed. One is struck by this little southern surname.
The Stublein are from Lorraine. The strain is in Saint-Avold, capital of the canton of Moselle, in the district of Forbach. If they came to the Aude, it is by accident. In 1820 the Marquise de Poulpry died, sole heir of the family Castagne whose last, Francois, was co-director of the East India Company and one of the richest men in France under the old regime: he had happened to lend money to the king! Before the Revolution, the Marquise de Poulpry enjoyed an immense fortune. Under the Restoration, she died ruined. Of all the possessions, to all areas of the upper valley of the Aude and Pyrénées, she had kept the forge of Quillan. This circumstance meant her nephew by marriage was sole heir, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, a master blacksmith. He proceeded to run this business and placed under the supervision of his trusted secretary and steward, François-Louis Esprit Stublein, he called in the country. Stublein was educated. He held the baccalaureate, rare at that time. When La Rochefoucauld, a few years later, sold the forge to Marshal Clauzel, he had no trouble getting to his businessman now unemployed a patent schoolmaster. That Stublein teacher and director of a boarding school in Sigean. Meanwhile, he had married a girl of the high valley of the Aude, Eglantine Maury. In Sigean were born two son: Emile to be a teacher in Alet, and Charles-Louis-Eugène, born in 1832, who became a teacher too. This one was just beginning when he married Josephine Lacapelle, which belonged to one of the most honorable families of Quillan. He served successively Issel, in Ouveillan, in Ladern in Alzonne, in Quillan and Espéraza and finally Nébias where he remained in office a long time. From a young age he was destined to like astronomy and despite the rusticity of the instruments he used, he obtained early results so accurate he was asked to provide weather forecasts for various newspapers. Around 1860 - 1870, cétait an unusual thing. He thus published notices and articles in the Courrier de l'Aude, Petit Marseillais, finally in the Dispatch. He brought an uninterrupted contribution to newspapers and bulletins of the Society for Agriculture and Agricultural Committees of the Aude and Herault. Besides his chronicles, we only know him a little book: Description of a trip to the thermal baths of the district of Limoux, Limoux printed in 1877. Everything he wrote was signed: Stublein Corbières . But never, never did Eugene Stublein study archeology. He looked to the sky, the point at his feet. And if in his description spas ... he comes to Rennes les Bains is only descriptive terms".
There may be a link with our famous priest Henri Boudet. He was born in Quillan November 16, 1837. Coming from a petty bourgeois family from the Tarn, he is the third child of Pierre Auguste Boudet, manager of the Quillan foundry and power of attorney of Count François Denis Henry Albert de La Rochefoucauld-Bayers (1799 – 1854), one of the shareholders of the company of forges and foundries of Axat.
Is this Rochefoucauld-Bayers of the family of the above mentioned Marquise de Poulpry - who when he lost everything deigned to make sure he however kept the forge of Quillan. This circumstance meant the nephew by marriage was sole heir, one Duke de La Rochefoucauld, a master blacksmith. He proceeded to run this business and placed under it the supervision of his trusted secretary and steward, François-Louis Esprit Stublein. If so, Boudet's father then was Power of Attorney to this Rochefoucauld family member - one of the shareholders of the company of Forges and Foundries of Axat, with input from the important DAX family, of which Boudet wrote a book detailing the family history. All were mixed up in the Forges of the area of Quillan/Axat.
Boudet's father was the manager of the forges of Quillan who had been authorized (1837) by François-Denis-Henry-Albert, Count de La Rochefoucauld-Bayers (1799–1854), a member of a prominent French aristocratic family, the De la Rochefoucault - to act as his sole representative to constitute a joint venture, la societé des forges et fonderies d'Axat, a Forge and casting plant. The partnership was also composed of controlling shareholder, Ange-Jean-Michel-Bonaventure (1767–1847), 4th Marquess of Dax d'Axat, once Mayor of Montpellier and his son Barthélémy-Léon-François-Xavîer de Dax.
Abbé Boudet was also a rentier, he received substantial income from real estate that he owned in co-ownership with his sister. What real estate? Was this from the family his brother married in to and the property of the Hotel Laurel-Sabat or somewhere else? A Rentier thus is a person who receives annuities and income from their investments. Its annuities can come from different sources (life insurance, shares in various companies, real estate income, stock market, financial investments, investment funds etc. These annuities for an individual, can be a fixed amount in advance received periodically (for example every month or every year) or, possibly, for the rest of his life (life annuity), from the assets of that individual. An annuity is also defined more generally as income from a wealth.