CHAPTER X.
THE OXFORD PROFESSORSHIP ON the 16th of March, 1892, Froude's old antagonist, Freeman, who had been Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford since Stubbs's elevation to the Episcopal Bench in 1884, died suddenly in Spain.
The Prime Minister, who was also Chancellor of the University, offered the vacant Chair to Froude, and after some hesitation Froude accepted it.

The doubt was due to his age.

"There are seventy-four reasons against it," he said.

Fortunately he yielded.

"The temptation of going back to Oxford in a respectable way," he wrote to Skelton, "was too much for me.