Linkage with other quatrains: 8.76.
Decoding of the number 10.40. 1000-40=960. By turning 9 in 6 and placing 1 in front we get 1660 – the year of beginning of reign.
Quatrain 2.53[1] Plague in England
La grande peste de cite maritime
Ne cessera que mort ne soit vengee:
Du iuste sang par pris damne sans crime,
De la grand' dame par fainte n'outragee.
The great plague of the maritime city
Will not cease until there be avenged the death:
Of the just blood, condemned for a price without crime,
Of the great lady insulted by pretense.
The 1 line. In 1665 the great bubonic plague was in London. It killed ~25% population of capital. Merchant ships with cotton brought epidemic from Netherland. The fleas, infected from ship's rats, were carriers of the plague.
The 2 – 3 lines. Probably the prophet considered the plague in England as punishment for the execution of king Charles I. In 1666 the big fire in London became end of plague. It deleted fleas, rats and infection. The city was rebuilt already with due regard the requirements of sanitation.
The 4 line tells about the insulted noble lady. Perhaps this is the wife of Charles I, which was exile to France with children.
Decoding of the number 2.53. If 2 to consider as 2000, 2000-35=1965, 9 to flip in 6, then we get 1665 – year of the beginning of a plague.
Quatrain 2.51 Fire in London
Le sang du iuste a Londres fera faute,
Bruslez par foudres de vingt trois les six,
La dame antique cherra de place haute,
De mesme secte plusieurs seront occis.
The blood of the righteous will bring blame to London.
Burned by lightning at twenty by three and six,
The ancient lady will fall from her high place,
Several of the same sect will be killed.
Nostradamus predicted the Great Fire in London from September 2 to 5, 1666 (666 is the number of the Antichrist). The numbers 2 and 5 in the quatrain's number indicate the days of the beginning and end of the fire. The second line shows the year of the fire: 20×3=60 and 6 – 66 year. The first line is about the cause of the fire. This is a punishment for Londoners for the innocently shed blood of king Charles I.
The fourth line speaks of foreigners and Catholics killed by a crowd. Many residents believed that the cause of the fire was arson organized by the French and Dutch, with whom there was a war.