So in his great work we read of 'the shield-wall _and the_ triple palisade still unbroken' (iii. 467). Later still 'the shield-wall still stood _behind the_ palisade' (p. 487). Even when 'the English palisade was gone _the English shield-wall_ was still a formidable hindrance in the way of the assailants (p. 491). The array of the shield-wall was still kept, though now without the help of the barricades' (p. 491). Here we have the very phrase of note NN, 'the array of the shield-wall',[45] and it is shown beyond question that Mr Freeman's shield-wall, whatever Mr Archer may pretend, was quite distinct from the palisade, and was a shield-wall 'pure and simple'. Let it also be clearly understood what Mr Freeman meant by that 'array of the shield-wall', of which the disputed passage in Wace was, he held, a description. He shows us the whole English army 'ranged so closely together in the thick array of the shield-wall, that while they only kept their ground the success of an assailant was hopeless'.[46] He describes them as, 'a strong line, or rather wedge, of infantry, forming a wall with their shields',[47] and he ascribes their defeat to their 'breaking the line of the shield-wall'.[48] Of this shield-wall my opponent rashly wrote: The Reviewer's [_sic_] theory of an extended shield-wall vanishes like smoke. If Wace is any authority ... the question is settled once and for all. There was no extended shield-wall at Hastings.[49] Of course, 'the Reviewer's theory' here is no other than Mr Freeman's own. If, in spite of the above evidence, it should still be pretended by anyone that the plain meaning of Mr Freeman's words is not their meaning, I will refer them not to my own interpretation, but to that of Mr Freeman's friend and colleague, the Rev W. Hunt, who wrote in the historian's lifetime, 'at his request' and by his 'invitation', and whose proofs were revised by Mr Freeman himself.[50] This is Mr Hunt's version: Set in close array behind a palisade forming a kind of fortification, _shoulder to shoulder and shield to shield_, the army of Harold presented a steady and immovable front to the Norman attack ... Fatal was the national formation of the English battle, when _men stood in the closest order, forming a wall with their shields_. While no mode of array could be stronger so long as the line remained unbroken it made it hard to form the line again.[51] So, again, in his life of Harold: All the heavy-armed force fought in close order, _shield touching shield_, so as to present a complete wall to the enemy.[52]