E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Cra’paud or Johnny Crapaud.
A Frenchman; so called from the device of the ancient kings of France, “three toads erect, saltant.” (Guillim’s Display of Heraldrie, 1611.) Nostrada’mus, in the sixteenth century, called the French “crapauds.”
1
Les anciens crapauds prenderont Sara (Nostrada’mus). Sara is the word Aras reversed, and when the French under Louis XIV. took Aras from the Spaniards, this verse was quoted as a prophecy.
