92 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



leges, Oxford, he was admitted to the Middle 

 Temple in 1595. He became Ambassador at The 

 Hague, and was three times appointed Ambassador 

 at Venice, viz., in 1604, 1615 and 1621. Going 

 from Rome he went to Florence, where a romantic 

 incident befell him. The Grand Duke of Florence 

 had heard of a plot against the life of James, then 

 King of Scotland, and he took Wotton into his 

 confidence in the matter ; Wotton disguised him- 

 self as an Italian, and under the name of Baldi 

 delivered his message, letting no one but James 

 himself know that he was an Englishman, and 

 after three months departed as true an Italian 

 as he came thither.^ 



Wotton's house in Venice seems to have been 

 the resort of very learned men. *'Here was 

 seen the purity of the Protestant faith in its own 

 primitive lustre and native loveliness, recommended 

 by its most powerful of all motives, a practice 

 in its professors perfectly consonant with the 

 rules of the Evangelical code." Wotton was never 

 ashamed to confess Christ before men ; he 

 attracted and did not repulse, although he had 

 services and sermons in his house after the 

 Protestant "use." The effect exercised by his 

 personality upon all who met him must have 

 been indeed magnetic. Father Paul (Peter Paul 



1 English Public Schools : Winchester, Arthur F. Leach (Duck- 

 worth & Co., 1899). 



