request, because the Queen shall not be offended with it." His mother
"hath promised to gett him lycence to travil into Italie." But, says
Paulet, "He may not goe into Italie withoute the companie of some honest
and wyse man, and so I have tould him, and in manie other things have
dealt very playnely with him."[87]

Among these troublesome charges of Paulet's was Francis Bacon. But to
his father, the Lord Keeper, Paulet writes only that all is well, and
that his son's servant is particularly honest, diligent, discreet and
faithful, and that Paulet is thankful for his "good and quiet behaviour
in my house"--a fact which appears exceptional.

Sir Dudley Carleton, as Ambassador to Venice, was also pursued by
ambitious fathers.[88] Sir Rowland Lytton Chamberlain writes to
Carleton, begs only "that his son might be in your house, and that you
would a little train him and fashion him to business. For I perceive he
means to make him a statesman, and is very well persuaded of him, ...
like a very indulgent father.... If you can do it conveniently, it will
be a favour; but I know what a business it is to have the breaking of
such colts, and therefore will urge no more than may be to your
liking."[89]

Besides gaining an apprenticeship in diplomacy, another advantage of
travelling with an ambassador was the participation in ambassadorial
immunities. It might have fared ill with Sir Philip Sidney, in Paris at
the time of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, if he had not belonged to
the household of Sir Francis Walsingham. Many other young men not so
glorious to posterity, but quite as much so to their mothers, were saved
then by the same means. When news of the massacre had reached England,
Sir Thomas Smith wrote to Walsingham: "I am glad yet that in these