of noble birth.[2649]

[Footnote 2649: H. Vincent, _La maison des Armoises, originaire de
Champagne_, in _Memoires de la Societe d'Archeologie Lorraine_, 3rd
series, vol. v (1877), p. 324. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 2, note 4.]

The so-called Maid married him,[2650] apparently with the approval of
the Duchess of Luxembourg. According to the opinion of the Holy
Inquisitor of Cologne, this marriage was contracted merely to protect
the woman against the interdict and to save her from the sword of the
Church.[2651]

[Footnote 2650: In his _Histoire de Lorraine_ (vol. v, pp. clxiv _et
seq._), Dom Calmet says that the contract of marriage between Robert
des Armoises and the Maid of France, which had long been preserved in
the family, was lost in his day. There is no need to regret it, for it
is now known that this contract was forged by Father Jerome Vignier.
Le Comte de Marsy (_La fausse Jeanne d'Arc, Claude des Armoises; du
degre de confiance a accorder aux decouvertes de Jerome Vignier_,
Compiegne, 1890) and M. Tamizey de Larroque (_Revue critique_, the
20th October, 1890). For Vignier's other forgeries cf. Julien Havet,
_Questions Merovingiennes_, ii.]

[Footnote 2651: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, bk. v, ch. viii. _Trial_,
vol. iv, pp. 503, 504.]

Soon after her marriage she went to live at Metz in her husband's
house, opposite the church of Sainte-Segolene, over the Sainte-Barbe
Gate. Henceforth she was Jeanne du Lys, the Maid of France, the Lady
of Tichemont. By these names she is described in a contract dated the
7th of November, 1436, by which Robert des Armoises and his wife,
authorised by him, sell to Collard de Failly, squire, dwelling at
Marville, and to Poinsette, his wife, one quarter of the lordship of
Haraucourt. At the request of their dear friends, Messire Robert and
Dame Jeanne, Jean de Thoneletil, Lord of Villette, and Saubelet de
Dun, Provost of Marville, as well as the vendors, put their seals to
the contract to testify to its validity.[2652]

[Footnote 2652: The preceding deed, by which "_Robert des Harmoises et
la Pucelle Jehanne d'Arc, sa femme_," acquired the estate of Fleville,
is very doubtful (D. Calmet, 2nd edition, vol. v, p. clxiv, note).]

In her dwelling, opposite the Sainte-Segolene Church, la Dame des
Armoises gave birth to two children.[2653] Somewhere in
Languedoc[2654] there was an honest squire who, when he heard of these
births, seriously doubted whether J