De Montfort thus seemed in a fair way to make his position durable; but unfortunately three important men had made their escape from Lewes:--these were the Earl of Warrenne, Hugh Bigod and William de Valence. These three fugitives betook themselves to Damme, in Flanders, where the Queen, in company with the exiled foreigners, Archbishop Boniface, Bishop of Hereford, Peter of Savoy, and John Mansell, had assembled an army of hired troops. Great preparations were made to meet the expected invasion, but the winds were so contrary that the ill-provided army, weary of waiting, separated. The closeness of the danger, however, induced Simon to send ambassadors to France, to urge on the completion of the settlement according to the Mise of Lewes. The embassy was at the same time to try and make terms with the Papal Legate, who had been quickly despatched to uphold the cause of so good a vassal of Rome as Henry. They were unsuccessful in both their objects. The Queen had been beforehand with Louis, and the Legate, who shortly afterwards ascended the Papal throne as Clement IV., replied only by excommunication. The Bull, however, was taken by the mariners of the Cinque Ports before reaching England, and thrown into the sea; and the excommunication did not take effect. [Sidenote: Royalist movements on the Welsh Marches.] Meanwhile, the royalist barons on the Marches of Wales, especially Mortimer, Clifford and Leybourne, began to bestir themselves. Some of them even pushed as far as Wallingford, where Prince Edward was a prisoner, and attempted, though in vain, to liberate him. The liberation of this Prince was now the chief object of the royalists, and the pressure put upon Leicester was so great, that he had, though unwillingly, to consent to measures which should bring it about. There was indeed every reason to desire that he should be freed. The part he had played in the late disputes had been highly honourable; he had remained true to the Provisions of Oxford, till the breaking out of the war seemed to render it his imperative duty to assist his father; and from his subsequent conduct it is plain that, although he must have disliked the present restrictions upon the royal power, there was much in the national policy of the Barons with which he sympathized. All those who resented the assumption of power by Montfort, while desiring a reform in government, would have found in him a welcome leader. [Sidenote: Parliament of 1265.]