Note 153 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

But his wildly brandished weapon proved more deadly to friend than foe: he discovered, as I knew, he could only oppose me by making jettison of Mr Freeman's views. Of this we have seen above examples striking enough; but the climax was reached in his chief contention, namely, that the lines in the Roman de Rou, which describe, Mr Freeman asserted, 'the array of the shield-wall',153 cannot, on many grounds, be 'referred to a shield-wall'.154 No contradiction could be more complete. So he now finds himself forced to write: