his deputy Vauclerc fired upon his ships. Warwick then steered on
towards Normandy, captured some Flemish vessels by the way, in token
of defiance to the earl's old Burgundian foe, and landed at Harfleur,
where he and his companions were received with royal honours by the
Admiral of France, and finally took their way to the court of Louis
XI. at Amboise.

"The danger is past forever!" said King Edward, as the wine sparkled
in his goblet. "Rebellion hath lost its head,--and now, indeed, and
for the first time, a monarch I reign alone!" [Before leaving
England, Warwick and Clarence are generally said to have fallen in
with Anthony Woodville and Lord Audley, and ordered them to execution,
from which they were saved by a Dorsetshire gentleman. Carte, who,
though his history is not without great mistakes, is well worth
reading by those whom the character of Lord Warwick may interest,
says, that the earl had "too much magnanimity to put them to death
immediately, according to the common practice of the times, and only
imprisoned them in the castle of Wardour, from whence they were soon
rescued by John Thornhill, a gentleman of Dorsetshire." The whole of
this story is, however, absolutely contradicted by the "Warkworth
Chronicle" (p. 9, edited by Mr. Halliwell), according to which
authority Anthony Woodville was at that time commanding a fleet upon
the Channel, which waylaid Warwick on his voyage; but the success
therein attributed to the gallant Anthony, in dispersing or seizing
all the earl's ships, save the one that bore the earl himself and his
family, is proved to be purely fabulous, by the earl's well-attested
capture of the Flemish vessels, as he passed from Calais to the coasts
of Normandy, an exploit he could never have performed with a single
vessel of his own. It is very probable that the story of Anthony
Woodville's capture and peril at this time originates in a