as has since been discovered confirms
Froude's proposition that the cause of Henry was the cause of
England. Freeman's Norman Conquest has secured for him an honourable
fame; his attacks upon Froude, until they have been forgotten, will
always be a reproach to his memory.

It was with just pride, and natural satisfaction, that Froude wrote
to Lady Derby in May, 1890: "I am revising my English History for a
final edition. Since I wrote it the libraries and archives of all
Europe have been searched and sifted. I am fairly astonished to find
how little I shall have to alter. The book is of course young, but I
do not know that it is the worse on that account. That fault at any
rate I shall not try to cure."

The Divorce of Katharine of Aragon, though not published till 1891,
is a sequel to the History. The twenty years which had intervened
did not lead Froude to modify any of his main conclusions, and he was
able to furnish new evidence in support of them. The correspondence
of Chapuys, Imperial Ambassador at the court of Henry VIII., puts
Fisher's treason beyond doubt, and proves that the bishop was
endeavouring to procure an invasion by Spanish troops when the king,
in Freeman's language, "slaughtered" him. The next year Froude
brought out, in a volume with other essays, his Spanish Story of the
Armada, written in his raciest manner, and proving from Spanish
sources the grotesque incompetence of Medina Sidonia. There are few
better narratives in the language, and the enthusiastic admiration of
a great American humourist was as well deserved as it is charmingly
expressed.

"The other night," wrote Bret Harte, "I took up Longman's Magazine*
and began to lazily read something about the Spanish Armada. My
knowledge of that historic event, I ought to say, is rather hazy; I
remember a vague something about Drake playing bowls while the
Spanish fleet was off the coast, and of Elizabeth going to Tilbury en
grande tenue, but there was always a good deal of 'Jingo' shouting
and Crystal Palace fireworks about it, and it never seemed real. In
the article I was reading the style caught me first; I became
tremendously interested; it was a new phase of the old story, and yet
there was something pleasantly familiar. I turned to the last page
quickly, and saw your blessed name. I had heard nothing about it
before. Then I went through it breathlessly to the last word, which
came all too soon. And now I am as eager for the next instalm