hero, escaped in Betty’s petticoats.  Cooper made these familiar scenes of southern New York the background of his second book, “The Spy, a Tale of the Neutral Ground,” which also was published, without the author’s name, December 22, 1821.  Its success called for a new edition the following March, and its translation into many foreign tongues.  Of Cooper’s “Betty Flanigan” Miss Edgeworth declared, “An Irish pen could not have drawn her better.”  Except Irving’s “Sketch Book,” his “Knickerbocker’s History of New York,” and Bryant’s thin volume of eight poems, there were few books by native writers when “The Spy” appeared; and “then it was that the new world awakened to the surprising discovery of her first American novelist.  The glory that Cooper justly won was reflected on his country, of whose literary independence he was the pioneer.  ‘The Spy’ had the charm of reality; it tasted of the soil.”  While the American press was slow to admit the merit of “The Spy,” a cordial welcome was given the book in “The Port Folio.”  It was written by Mrs. Sarah Hall, mother of the editor, and author of “Conversations on the Bible.”  This act of timely kindness Cooper never forgot.  June 30, 1822, Washington Irving, from London, wrote Mr. John E. Hall, the editor:  “‘The Spy’ is extremely well spoken of by the best circles,—­not a bit better than it deserves, for it does the author great credit.”

[Illustration:  THE LOCUSTS OF COOPER’S TIME.]

[Illustration:  TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF “THE SPY.”]

[Illustration:  ENOCH CROSBY.]

In 1826, when “The Spy” was before the footlights in Lafayette Theatre, on Broadway, near Canal Street, Enoch Crosby, the supposed original spy, appeared in a box with friends, and “was given thunders of applause.”  From “Portraits of Cooper’s Heroines,” by the Rev. Ralph Birdsall of Cooperstown, is gleaned:  On the walls of the Newport home of the Rev. John Cornell hang two old portraits that have close connection with the inner history of “The Spy.”  To their present owner they came from the New York home of his mother, the late Mrs. Isaac Cornell, and to her they came from the Somerville, New Jersey, home of her father, Mr. Richard Bancker Duyckinck, who in his turn received them from his aunt, Mrs. Peter Jay,—­the subject of one of these portraits and at one time mistress of the Jay mansion at Rye.  Over one hundred years ago it was that, from the walls of this rare old home at Rye, Westchester County, the grace of these ladies on canvas caught James Cooper’s thought to use them, by description, in his coming book, “The Spy.”  Chapter XIII describes closely the personal appearance and style of dress of these portraits.  “Jeanette Peyton,” the maiden aunt of Cooper’s story, owes her mature charm to the portrait of Mary Duyckinck, wife of Peter Jay.  From the “cap of exquisite lawn and lace,” her gown of rich silk, short sleeves and “large ruffles” of lace which with “the experience of forty years,”