250 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
office of bailli of Caen, relinquishing the provostship of Paris, which 
was immediately conferred upon another.’ Of his official service at 
Caen there are few details to be found. He evidently remained in 
favor with the royal court, for he retained his courtly rank of councillor 
and chamberlain, and from Jan. 1, 1532, also drew a pension from the 
royal treasury.” In this last-named year he is said to have officially 
welcomed King Francis on the occasion of a royal visit to Caen. Pos- 
sibly the year 1532, with the grant of a pension, marks the relinquish- 
ment of personal connection with the bailiffship, for thereafter the 
references to D’Alegre indicate him as engaged in militaryservice. It 
was a period when the French military system was being reorganized 
in preparation for anticipated war and for the work in hand the king 
needed trusted men like D’Alegre. The expected war finally began 
with the French advance against Savoy in 1536. In the Italian cam- 
paign that followed D’Alegre was an officer in field service and as such 
died not long previous to March, 1537.3 His family, whose members 
spelled the name “D’Allégre,” was prominent in Normandy for more 
than a century after his time. 
During his tenure as bailli of Caen, which fell exactly in the time 
indicated by Lescarbot’s text, the baron D’Alegre held authority over 
the five administrative viscounties of Caen, Bayeux, Falaise, Auge and 
-Vire, each under its appointive viscount. Lescarbot says that his 
colonizing baron was “Vicomte de Gueu.” If there can be found 
anywhere in 16th century France a real viscounty of “Gueu” it may 
indeed, be the one which Lescarbot had in mind. Until such a district 
is found it is safe to conjecture that Lescarbot worked from some obscure 
recollection of the “vicomté d’Auge” over which the bailli D’Alegre 
had supervision. So far as accessible records indicate the baron D’ Alegre 
at no time held the office of viscount, either in Normandy or elsewhere, 
so that no argument for the identity of De Lery and D’Alegre can be 
drawn from this part of Lescarbot’s text. There is nevertheless some 
small amount of significance in the fact that the viscounty of Auge was 
that district lying around the seaport town of Honfleur from which at 
various times in later years vessels sailed on voyages to those same 
regions where Lescarbot claims his colonizing baron sent his party. 
Assuming that the suggested identity of the two barons is a fact, 
it must yet be admittted that it throws no new light upon the asserted 
colonizing expedition to the New World. In fact, the probabilities are 
very much against the accuracy of Lescarbot on this point. D’Alegre 
? Actes de François Ier, V, p. 754. 
? Actes de François Ier, V, p. 763; II, p. 532. 
3 Letters and Papers, For. and Dom., of Hen. VIII, X, p.234; XII, Pt. 1, p. 260. 
