Freeman thought, like the older Pharisees, that he should be heard for his much speaking, and for a time he was.

People did not realise that so many confident allegations could be made in which there was no substance at all.

They thought themselves safe in making allowance for Freeman's exaggeration, and Freeman simply bored many persons into accepting his estimate of Froude.

Perhaps he went a little too far when he claimed to have found inaccuracies in Froude's transcripts from the Simancas manuscripts without knowing a word of Spanish.

But he was seldom so frank as that.