E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Crapaud or Johnny Crapaud.
A Frenchman; so called from the device of the ancient kings of France, three toads erect, saltant. (Guillims Display of Heraldrie, 1611.) Nostradamus, in the sixteenth century, called the French crapauds.
1
Les anciens crapauds prenderont Sara (Nostradamus). 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.