Nostradamus C.3 Q.48: How Nostradamus used his poetry to hide his astronomic code. This verse is one of those that contributed most to my earliest views on how Nostradamus incorporated astronomic data into his poetry (See my paper on Astronomy for more). My attention was drawn to it by the singular anagrams for 'memorizes, mansions, truer time, in size' found in its fourth line. The mansions relate to an equatorial system of astronomy and by making this connection I was able to give meaning to the text of the fourth line. The decay of a particular star beneath the horizon accounts for much of the content in the text while another theme found in the anagrams can be tied into the remainder of the text. The whole is related to the set of mutations the world will experience at the end of this century.   In presenting each of Nostradamus' verse with the layout given here I bring together the elements of his word-craft on which we are dependent for clarifying the enigmas in the text. In all my works I have claimed this process is like the keywords we now use to gather information from the data cloud of the internet and like that process there can never be total reliance  on a single word or cluster nor can we reliance on infrequency as an unquestionable guide. Instead we must always use it as a gestalt, a totality filtered by many markers.   C.3 Q.48  Seven hundred captives bound roughly. Lots drawn for the half to be murdered: The hope at hand will come very promptly But not as soon as the fifteenth death. Sept cens captifs e$tachez rudement Pour la moitie meurtrir donne le $ort Le proche e$poir viendra $i promptement Mais non $i to$t qu'vne quinzie$me mort. Anagram Clusters contained in French text <rude men Safest Step accents pit><unmetred Step teaches z fits caps> feaSts dementS cheatS / chaSte <none rid PetrolS truer time><ural [mountains] omit Poorest><it uProotS moral><ural trooPS omit> <prechoSe eLement><petroL men tempor [ word element]><diviner pose pairs echo ><previSioned>rapids Speech-Lore preordainS raindropS ecoSphere [life sphere] <it quot's uniqve Mansions><MansionS meteoriSm [flatulence?]><quin memorizeS><noMinators uniqve quot's Sit><in Size><notionS aiMs>insoMnias memorieS roMantism / Matronism Monetarism FREQUENCIES OF RAREST OCCURRENCE in Centuries 'truer time', previsioned, ecosphere, raindrops, speechlore, pre-ordains, insomnias, nominators, 'in size', memorizes, memories accents, poorest, 'petrol men', notions, meteorism unmetred, uproots, monetarism safest / feasts, romantism / matronism troops diviner, uniqve (v=u), quot's ('=e) dements, element, rapids - teaches, prechose - - - petrols (different line to petrol) petrol - - - moral - cheats / chaste, omit