of the vault under the parliament house in which the powder was laid. Carleton, in ignorance that his name had been mentioned in the affair, and never thinking that suspicion could light upon himself, still remained in Paris by his friend's side. His prolonged absence from England under the circumstances led to rumours much to his prejudice, and he was at length peremptorily summoned home by an order of the lords of the council, and on his arrival in London was placed in confinement in the bailiff's house at Westminster. Eventually he succeeded in clearing himself of all cognisance of, or complicity in, the abominable conspiracy, and by the favour of Lord Salisbury he was set at liberty, but not till he had been under arrest for nearly a month. His unfortunate connection with the Earl of Northumberland acted seriously to his prejudice for some years and interfered with his advancement, though he had already made powerful friends and had succeeded in producing a general impression of being a man of promise and extraordinary ability.
In November 1607 he married, in the Temple Church, Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Saville, the editor of Chrysostom's works and founder of the Savillian professorship at Oxford. Carleton had already assisted his future father-in-law in collating manuscripts while he was in Paris in 1603, and he continued 'plodding at his Greek letters,' as he calls it, while living in Sir Henry's house with his young wife during the first year of their married life. After this, and when a child was born to him, he took a house at Westminster, and became a diligent debater in parliament when it assembled. Salisbury had an eye upon the young man, and when, in May 1610, Sir Thomas Edmundes was recalled from the embassy to the Archduke Albert, Carleton was appointed to go as ambassador to Brussels. When all preparations were made for his departure, the king's intention changed, and he was ordered to proceed to Venice as successor to Sir Henry Wotton, who was recalled. He received the honour of knighthood in September, and, arriving at his destination about the middle of November, his career as a diplomatist began. From this time till the end of his life Carleton grew to be more and more esteemed as the most sagacious and successful diplomatist in Europe, and a history of the negotiations in which he was engaged would be a history of the foreign affairs of England during more than half of the reigns of James I and his unhappy successor. He returned to England from his Venetian embassy in 1615, shortly after he had carried through the very delicate task of getting the treaty of Asti concluded, whereby the war between Spain and Savoy was brought to an end, and something like peace in Europe was established. He did not remain long at home. In March 1616 he was sent to succeed Winwood at the Hague, and during the next five years he continued ambassador there. His despatches during this period contain a masterly summary of Dutch history and politics, and a graphic account of the extreme difficulties of the writer's position, and of the unfailing versatility and self-command which he displayed in extricating himself from these difficulties as they emerged.
Motley has given a caustic résumé of Carleton's speeches in the Assembly of Estates in 1617, which provoked much discussion at the time, and one of which at least was answered by Grotius in print. But when he attributes to him a bitter hatred of his hero Barneveld, Motley mistakes the man he was writing about. Carleton was of too cool and calculating a nature to be capable of strong hatred. Life to him, and especially political life, was a game to be played without passion; the men upon the board were but pawns or counters; and in playing with the States General at this time, when everybody in Holland was more or less mad with a theological mania, it was idle to speak or act as if they were sane. When four years later Frederic the Elector found himself an exile after the battle of Prague, and took refuge in Holland, he occupied for a time the ambassador's house, and brought in the Princess Elizabeth and her children with their retinue. Carleton was put to very great expense, but he bore it with his usual sangfroid, though he did not forget to mention the fact when subsequently he was seeking for royal favour. Sir Henry Saville died in February 1622. Lady Carleton was his only surviving child, and, possibly with a view to looking after her own interests, and certainly with the hope of getting some large sums of money which were due to the ambassador, in the spring of the following year her ladyship went over to England and was received with much favour. Thomas Murray, the prince's tutor, had succeeded Sir Henry as provost of Eton, but just as Lady Carleton arrived in England Murray too died. The provostship of Eton was again vacant, and Carleton was among the candidates for the vacant preferment; it fell to Sir Henry Wotton, however, and Carleton had to wait some years longer for promotion. In 1625 Buckingham came over to the Hague to attend the congress which was going to do such great things and did so little; and the speech which
