excommunication against all disturbers of the peace “from the highest to the lowest.”  The royalists had wisely determined to cut off his communication with the rest of the kingdom by securing to themselves the command of the Severn.  Worcester readily opened its gates; Gloucester was taken by storm; and the castle, after a siege of two weeks, was surrendered on condition that the garrison 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.