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290 STUDIES OF MEN

Froucle wrote. He had divined the real Henry with-
out them, basing himself, as he expressly declared, upon
the statute book as the true mirror of the time and of
the great King. He said — I forget whether he said it in
print, but I have heard him discuss the matter with the
luminous eloquence which characterised his talk — he
said that the popular notion of Henry made the people
whom he ruled a nation of incapables and cowards. It
is certain they were not. Their deeds are there to speak
for them. They were a wise, valiant, patient people, he-
roic in act, far-sighted in their political views, deeply re-
ligious. It is inconceivable, said Mr. Froude, that such a
people should allow themselves to be ruled for near fifty
years by a sovereign who was a mere selfish debauchee
and brigand. And he put aside that theory of Henry's
character, and reconstructed the true Henry, so that he
lived once more and had a new being, with the blood
throbbing in his veins and his mind once more grasping
the secrets of the statesmanship of his time.
There is probably no finer example of the right use
of the historic imagination. There is certainly none
which has put the pedants more completely to
shame.
