acknowledge them, except as invaders and usurpers. A few broken monuments are all that remain to bear witness to their power and dominion, as solitary rocks, left far in the interior, bear testimony to the extent of some vast inundation. Such is the Alhambra:-a Moslem pile in the midst of a Christian land; an Oriental palace amidst the Gothic edifices of the West; an elegant memento of a brave, in- 10 telligent, and graceful people, who conquered, ruled, flourished, and passed away. From The Alhambra, 1832.

or

SPANISH ROMANCE

TO THE EDITOR OF THE KNICKERBOCKER

5

SIR: I have already given you a legend 20

principal business of man, and was carried to the highest pitch of romantic chivalry. The original ground of hostility, a difference of faith, gradually lost its rancor. Neighboring states, of opposite creeds, were occasionally linked together in alliances, offensive and defensive; so that the cross and crescent were to be seen side by side fighting against some common enemy. In times of peace, too, the noble youth of either faith resorted to the same cities, Christian or Moslem, to school themselves in military science. Even in the temporary truces 15 of sanguinary ars, the warriors who had recently striven together in the deadly conflicts of the field, laid aside their animosity, met at tournaments, jousts, and other military festivities, and exchanged the courtesies of gentle and generous spirits. Thus the opposite races became frequently mingled together in peaceful intercourse, or if any rivalry took place, it was in those high courtesies and nobler acts which bespeak the accomplished cavalier. Warriors of opposite creeds became ambitious of transcending each other in magnanimity as well as valor. Indeed, the chivalric virtues were refined upon to a degree sometimes fastidious and constrained; but at other times, inexpressibly noble and affecting. The annals of the times teem with illustrious instances of highwrought courtesy, romantic generosity, lofty disinterestedness, and punctilious honor, that warm the very soul to read them. These have furnished themes for national plays and poems, or have been celebrated in those all-pervading ballads which are as the life-breath of the people, and thus have continued to exercise an influence on the national character which centuries of vicissitude and decline have not been able to destroy; so that, with all their faults, and they are many, the Spaniards, even at the present day, are on many points the most high-minded and proud-spirited people of Europe. It is true, the romance of feeling derived from

two drawn from ancient Spanish sources, and may occasionally give you a few more. I love these old Spanish themes, especially when they have a dash of the Morisco in them, and treat of the 25 times when the Moslems maintained a foot-hold in the peninsula. They have a high, spicy, oriental flavor, not to be found in any other themes that are merely European. In fact, Spain is a country 30 that stands alone in the midst of Europe; severed in habits, manners, and modes of thinking, from all its continental neighbors. It is a romantic country; but its romance has none of the sentimentality 35 of modern European romance; it is chiefly derived from the brilliant regions of the East, and from the high-minded school of Saracenic chivalry.

The Arab invasion and conquest brought 40 a higher civilization and a nobler style of thinking into Gothic Spain. The Arabs were a quick-witted, sagacious, proud-spirited, and poetical people, and were imbued with oriental science and 45 literature. Wherever they established a seat of power, it became a rallying place for the learned and ingenious; and they softened and refined the people whom they conquered. Bv degrees, occupancy 50 the sources I have mentioned, has, like

seemed to give them a hereditary right
to their foothold in the land; they ceased
to be looked upon as invaders, and were
regarded as rival neighbors. The penin-
sula, broken up into a variety of states, 55
both Christian and Moslem, became for
centuries a great campaigning ground,
where the art of war seemed to be the

all other romance, its affectations and extremes. It renders the Spaniard at times pompous and grandiloquent; prone to carry the pundonor,' or point of honor, beyond the bounds of sober sense and sound morality; disposed, in the midst of poverty, to affect the 'grande caballero,' and to look down with sovereign disdain

upon arts mechanical,' and all the gainful pursuits of plebeian life; but this very inflation of spirit, while it fills his brain with vapors, lifts him above a thousand meannesses; and though it often keeps him in indigence, ever protects him from vulgarity.

In the present day, when popular literature is running into the low levels of life and luxuriating on the vices and follies of 10 mankind, and when the universal pursuit of gain is trampling down the early growth of poetic feeling and wearing out the verdure of the soul, I question whether it would not be of service for the reader 15 occasionally to turn to these records of prouder times and loftier modes of thinking, and to steep himself to the very lips in old Spanish romance.

the same way that a provident housewife has her cupboard of cordials. Whenever I find my mind brought below par by the commonplace of every-day 5 life, or jarred by the sordid collisions of the world, or put out of tune by the shrewd selfishness of modern utilitarianism, I resort to these venerable tomes, as did the worthy hero of La Mancha to his books of chivalry, and refresh and tone up my spirit by a deep draught of their contents. They have some such effect upon me as Falstaff ascribes to a good Sherris sack, warming the blood and filling the brain with fiery and delectable shapes.'

For my own part, I have a shelf or two 20 of venerable, parchment-bound tomes, picked up here and there about the peninsula, and filled with chronicles, plays, and ballads, about Moors and Christians, which I keep by me as mental tonics, in 25

I here subjoin, Mr. Editor, a small specimen of the cordials I have mentioned, just drawn from my Spanish cupboard, which I recommend to your palate. If you find it to your taste, you may pass it on to your readers.

Your correspondent and well-wisher,

GEOFFREY CRAYON. From Wolfert's Roost, 1855

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851)

At the close of the Revolutionary war the father of J. Fenimore Cooper joined the westward movement of the time and took up a vast tract of land on what was then the wild frontier at the headwaters of the Susquehanna in the state of New York. Here on the shores of Lake Otsego he built in 1786 a manor house in southern plantation fashion, the center of a little selfdependent community, and here he ruled with a kind of feudal authority for the rest of his life. It was no common home: distinguished visitors frequented it. The French statesman Tallyrand made it his headquarters for a time, and many prominent British travelers at one time or another were entertained under its hospitable roof. It was the center of a picturesque area of society. Indians and frontiersmen used it as a trading post, and every element of the wild life of the border surged constantly about it. A marvelous place it was for an impressionable boy, a unique training school for a young novelist. The boy Cooper came at the moment when the old régime was passing away and he saw the full glory of the primitive forests and the wild life that surged about the lakes. He accompanied trappers and Indians on trips into the woods and he listened night after night to their savage tales.

His father, however, had ambitious plans for the boy. He had him tutored carefully in Latin and Greek and had him ready at thirteen to enter Yale. The lad was too young to send to coilege. He wanted to play. and his free-aired childhood had made him impatient of restraint. Before he was sixteen the college had dismissed him for his pranks. The sea had laid hold of his imagination: he wanted to join the navy. Gaining his father's consent, he qualified by a year in a sailing vessel before the mast and in 1808 became a regular midshipman in the United States service. He served until 1811 when he was given an honorable discharge. He married at twenty-one and the rest of his life he spent unadventurously in the quiet of his peaceful home either in New York or in quarters abroad.

His literary career began in 1820 with Precaution, a dull domestic novel which he had written almost by accident as a protest against the insufferable English fiction that he had been compelled to read. The next year he produced The Spy with material and scenes with which he was familiar and all at once he awoke to find himself famous. The Pioneers, 1823, and The Pilot, 1823, especially the latter, established him as a novelist, and when in 1826, after issuing The Last of the Mohicans, he sailed with his family for Europe, his popularity had reached the highest point. During the seven years he spent in Europe he wrote continuously: tales of the sea. Indian stories, historical romances, European historical novels after the pattern of Scott, and defenses of his native land. Then, returning to America, he became engaged in bitter controversy with his countrymen. He wrote novels criticising American manners as contrasted with European manners, he prepared a history of the United States navy which made him enemies, and he began to prosecute vigorously all critics and papers which in his estimation libeled him. Little that he wrote during his last years ranks with his best work. In his thirty-two novels there is much that need not be read. One may ignore almost two-thirds of his entire set of books. Among his best stories are the five Leather-Stocking Tales: The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder. The Pioneers, and The Prairie; five sea tales: The Pilot, The Red Rover. The Water Witch, The Two Admirals, and Wing and Wing: and two or three others, notably The Spy. Lionel Lincoln, and Satanstoe. The best life of Cooper is Lounsbury's in The American Men of Letters Series.

THE PILOT

CHAPTER XVIII

'Thus guided on their course they bore,
Until they neared the mainland shore;
When frequent on the hollow blast,
Wild shouts of merriment were cast.'
Lord of the Isles.

The joyful shouts and hearty cheers of the Ariel's crew continued for some time after her commander had reached her deck. Barnstable answered the congrat5 ulations of his officers by cordial shakes of the hand; and after waiting for the ebullition of delight among the seamen to subside a little, he beckoned with an air of authority for silence.

5

I thank you, my lads, for your goodwill, he said, when all were gathered around him in deep attention: they have given us a tough chase, and if you had left us another mile to go, we had been lost. That fellow is a king's cutter; and though his disposition to run to leeward is a good deal mollified, yet he shows signs of fight. At any rate, he is stripping off some of his clothes, which looks as if he 10 were game. Luckily for us, Captain Manual has taken all the marines ashore with him (though what he has done with them or himself, is a mystery), or we should have had our decks lumbered with live 15 cattle; but, as it is, we have a good working breeze, tolerably smooth water, and a dead match! There is a sort of national obligation on us to whip that fellow; and therefore, without more words zo about the matter, let us turn to and do it, that we may get our breakfasts.'

To this specimen of marine eloquence the crew cheered as usual, the young men burning for the combat, and the few old 25 sailors who belonged to the schooner shaking their heads with infinite satisfaction, and swearing by sundry strange oaths that their captain could talk, when there was need of such a thing, like the best 30 dictionary that ever was launched.'

During this short harangue, and the subsequent comments, the Ariel had been kept under a cloud of canvas, as near to the wind as she could lie; and as this was 35 her best sailing, she had stretched swiftly out from the land to a distance whence the cliffs, and the soldiers who were spread along their summits, became plainly visible. Barnstable turned his 40 glass repeatedly, from the cutter to the shore, as different feelings predominated in his breast, before he again spoke.

'If Mr. Griffith is stowed away among those rocks,' he at length said, he shall 45 see as pretty an argument discussed, in as few words, as he ever listened to, provided the gentlemen in yonder cutter have not changed their minds as to the road they intend to journey - what think you, 50 Mr. Merry?'

'I wish with all my heart and soul, sir,' returned the fearless boy, that Mr. Griffith was safe aboard us; it seems the country is alarmed, and God knows what 55 will happen if he is taken! As to the fellow to windward, he 'll find it easier to deal with the Ariel's boat than with her

mother; but he carries a broad sail; I question if he means to show play.'

Never doubt him, boy,' said Barnstable, he is working off the shore, like a man of sense, and besides, he has his spectacles on, trying to make out what tribe of Yankee Indians we belong to. You'll see him come to the wind presently, and send a few pieces of iron down this way, by way of letting us know where to find him. Much as I like your first lieutenant, Mr. Merry, I would rather leave him on the land this day, than see him on my decks. I want no fighting captain to work this boat for me! But tell the drummer, sir, to beat to quarters.'

The boy, who was staggering under the weight of his melodious instrument, had been expecting this command, and without waiting for the midshipman to communicate the order, he commenced that short rub-a-dub air, that will at any time rouse a thousand men from the deepest sleep, and cause them to fly to their means of offense with a common soul. The crew of the Ariel had been collected in groups, studying the appearance of the enemy, cracking their jokes, and waiting only for this usual order to repair to the guns; and at the first tap of the drum, they spread with steadiness to the different parts of the little vessel, where their various duties called them. The cannon were surrounded by small parties of vigorous and athletic young men; the few marines were drawn up in array with muskets; the officers appeared in their boarding-caps, with pistols stuck in their belts, and naked sabers in their hands. Barnstable paced his little quarter-deck with a firm tread, dangling a speaking-trumpet by its lanyard on his forefinger, or occasionally applying the glass to his eye, which, when not in use, was placed under one arm, while his sword was resting against the foot of the mainmast; a pair of heavy ship's pistols were thrust into his belt also; and piles of muskets, boarding-pikes, and naked sabers were placed on different parts of the deck. The laugh of the seamen was heard no longer; and those who spoke uttered their thoughts only in low and indistinct whispers.

The English cutter held her way from the land until she got an offing of more than two miles, when she reduced her sails to a yet smaller number; and heaving into the wind, she fired a gun in a direction

opposite to that which pointed to the Ariel.

'Now I would wager a quintal of codfish, Master Coffin,' said Barnstable, ' against the best cask of porter that was ever brewed in England, that fellow believes a Yankee schooner can fly in the wind's eye! If he wishes to speak to us, why don't he give his cutter a little sheet and come down?'

5

- though I hate a noisy chase; speak to him, Tom, and let us see if he will answer.'

Aye, aye, sir,' cried the cockswain, sinking his body in such a manner as to let his head fall to a level with the cannon that he controlled, when, after divers orders, and sundry movements to govern the direction of the piece, he applied a match, 10 with a rapid motion, to the priming. An immense body of white smoke rushed from the muzzle of the cannon, followed by a sheet of vivid fire, until, losing its power, it yielded to the wind, and as it rose from the water, spread like a cloud, and, passing through the masts of the schooner, was driven far to leeward, and soon blended in the mists which were swiftly scudding before the fresh breezes

15

The cockswain had made his arrangements for the combat with much more method and philosophy than any other man in the vessel. When the drum beat to quarters, he threw aside his jacket, vest, and shirt, with as little hesitation as if he stood under an American sun, and with all the discretion of a man who had engaged in an undertaking that required the free use of his utmost powers. As he 20 of the ocean. was known to be a privileged individual in the Ariel, and one whose opinions, in all matters of seamanship, were regarded as oracles by the crew, and were listened to by his commander with no little demon- 25 stration of respect, the question excited no surprise. He was standing at the breech of his long gun, with his brawny arms folded on a breast that had been turned to the color of blood by long ex- 30 posure, his grizzled locks fluttering in the breeze, and his tall form towering far above the heads of all near him.

'He hugs the wind, sir, as if it was his sweetheart,' was his answer; but 35 he'll let go his hold soon; and if he don't, we can find a way to make him fall to leeward.'

'Keep a good full!' cried the commander, in a stern voice; and let the 40 vessel go through the water. That fellow walks well, long Tom; but we are too much for him on a bowline; though, if he continue to draw ahead in this manner, it will be night before we can get along- 45 side him.'

'Aye, aye, sir,' returned the cockswain; 'them cutters carries a press of canvas when they seem to have but little; their gaffs are all the same as young booms, 50 and spread a broad head to their mainsails. But it's no hard matter to knock a few cloths out of their bolt-ropes, when she will both drop astarn and to leeward.'

'I believe there is good sense in your scheme this time,' said Barnstable; for I am anxious about the frigate's people

eyes were

curious Although many watching this beautiful sight from the cliffs, there was too little of novelty in the exhibition to attract a single look of the crew of the schooner, from the more important examination of the effect of the shot on their enemy. Barnstable sprung lightly on a gun, and watched the instant when the ball would strike, with keen interest, while long Tom threw himself aside from the line of the smoke with a similar intention; holding one of his long arms extended towards his namesake, with a finger on the vent, and supporting his frame by placing the hand of the other on the deck, as his eyes glanced through an opposite port-hole, in an attitude that most men might have despaired of imitating with success.

'There go the chips!' cried Barnstable. 'Bravo! Master Coffin, you never planted iron in the ribs of an Englishman with more judgment. Let him have another piece of it; and if he like the sport, we'll play a game of long bowls with him!'

Aye, aye, sir,' returned the cockswain, who, the instant he witnessed the effects of his shot, had returned to superintend the reloading of his gun; if he holds on half an hour longer, I'll dub him down to our own size, when we can close, and make an even fight of it.'

The drum of the Englishman was now for the first time heard rattling across the 55 waters, and echoing the call to quarters that had already proceeded from the Ariel.

Ah! you have sent him to his guns!'