n should not serve
again during the next forty days. Every bridge was now broken down;
the small craft on the river was sunk or destroyed; and the fords were
either deepened or watched by powerful detachments. Leicester, caught
as it were in the toils, remained inactive at Hereford; but he awaited
the arrival of the troops whom he had summoned, and concluded with
Llewellyn of Wales a treaty of alliance, by which, for the pretended
payment of thirty thousand marks, Henry was made to resign all the
advantages which he and his predecessors had wrested from the princes
of that country. At last, reinforced by a party of Welshmen, the Earl
marched to the south, took and destroyed the castle of Monmouth, and
fixed his head-quarters at Newport. Here he expected a fleet of
transports to convey him to Bristol; but the galleys of the Earl of
Gloucester blockaded the mouth of the Avon; and Edward, with the
bravest of his knights, made an attempt on the town of Newport itself.
The part which lay on the left bank of the Usk was carried; but the
destruction of the bridge arrested the progress of the victors, and
Leicester, with his dispirited followers, escaped into Wales.

Misfortune now pressed on misfortune; and the last anchor of his hope
was broken by the defeat of his son Simon of Montfort. That young
nobleman was employed in the siege of Pevensey, on the coast of
Sussex, when he received the King's writ to repair to Worcester. On
his march he sacked the city of Winchester, the gates of which had
been shut against him, passed peaceably through Oxford, and reached
the castle of Kenilworth, the principal residence of his family. Here
he remained for some days in heedless security, awaiting the orders of
his father. Margot, a woman who in male attire performed the office of
a spy, informed the Prince that Simon lay in the priory, and his
followers in the neighboring farmhouses. Edward immediately formed the
design of surprising them in their beds; and marching from Worcester
in the evening, arrived at Kenilworth about sunrise the next morning.
Twelve bannerets with all their followers were made prisoners; and
their horses and treasures repaid the industry of the captors. Simon
alone with his pages escaped naked into the castle.

Leicester on the same day had crossed the Severn by a ford, and halted
at Kempsey, about three miles from Worcester. Happy to find himself at
last on the left bank of the river, and ignorant of the fate of