vindication of Froude in Mr. Herbert Paul's _Life_, it would be superfluous
to go into the details of that unhappy controversy. The only difference
between Froude and other historians is that Froude's partisanship is always
obvious. He was not more favourable to Henry VIII. than Stubbs was to
Thomas à Becket. But Froude openly avowed his preferences and his dislikes.
Catholicism was to him "a dying superstition," Protestantism "a living
truth." Freeman went further, and charged Froude with having written a
history which was not "_un livre de bonne joy._" It is only necessary to
recall the circumstances under which the _History_ was written to dispose
of that odious charge. In order to obtain material for his _History_,
Froude spent years of his life in the little Spanish village of Simancas.
"I have worked in all," he said in his Apologia, "through nine hundred
volumes of letters, notes, and other papers, private and official, in five
languages and in different handwritings. I am not rash enough to say that I
have never misread a word, or overlooked a passage of importance. I profess
only to have dealt with my materials honestly to the best of my ability."
Few, indeed, have had to encounter such difficulties as met Froude in his
exploration of the archives at Simancas. "Often at the end of a page," he
wrote many years after, "I have felt as after descending a precipice, and
have wondered how I got down. I had to cut my way through a jungle, for no
one had opened the road for me. I have been turned into rooms piled to the
window-sill with bundles of dust-coloured despatches, and told to make the
best of it. Often have I found the sand glistening on the ink where it had
been sprinkled when a page was turned. There the letter had lain, never
looked at again since it was read and put away." Of these difficulties not
a trace is discoverable in Froude's easy and effortless narrative. When he
was approaching the completion of his _History_, he vowed that his account
of the Armada should be as interesting as a novel. He succeeded not only
with that portion of his task, but with all the stirring story that he set
out to narrate. But the ease of his style only concealed the real pains