Joan of Arc or Jeanne la Pucelle. M. Octave Delepierre has published a pamphlet, called Doute
Historique, to deny the tradition that Joan of Arc was burnt at Rouen for sorcery. He cites a document
discovered by Father Vignier in the seventeenth century, in the archives of Metz, to prove that she
became the wife of Sieur des Armoise, with whom she resided at Metz, and became the mother of a
family. Vignier subsequently found in the family muniment-chest the contract of marriage between
"Robert des Armoise, knight, and Jeanne D'Arcy, surnamed the Maid of Orleaus." In 1740 there were
found in the archives of the Maison de Ville (Orléans) records of several payments to certain messengers
from Joan to her brother John, bearing the dates 1435, 1436. There is also the entry of a presentation
from the council of the city to the Maid, for her services at the siege (dated 1439). M. Delepierre has
brought forward a host of other documents to corroborate the same fact, and show that the tale of her
martyrdom was invented to throw odium on the English. A sermon is preached annually in France
towards the beatification of the Maid, who will eventually become the patron saint of that nation