[Illustration:  COOPER’S SUMMER HOME, ST. OUEN, 1827.]

Cooper was ever a home-lover.  Wherever he might be in foreign lands, he contrived to have his own roof-tree when possible.  Therefore, the summer of 1827 sent them from rue St. Maur to the village of St. Ouen, on the banks of the Seine and a league from the gates of Paris.  The village itself was not attractive, but pleasant was the home, next to a small chateau where Madame de Stael lived when her father, M. Necker, was in power.  Some twenty-two spacious, well-furnished rooms this summer home had, in which once lived the Prince de Soubise when grand veneur of Louis XV, who went there at times to eat his dinner—­“in what served us for a drawing-room,” Cooper wrote.  The beautiful garden of shade-trees, shrubbery, and flowers, within gray walls fourteen feet high, was a blooming paradise; and for it all—­horses, cabriolet, grand associations—­was paid two hundred dollars per month for the season of five.

“The Red Rover” was written in these three or four summer months in St. Ouen on the Seine, whence the author’s letters tell of watching the moving life on the river, the merry washerwomen as they chatter, joke, and splash beneath his terrace; how he tried punting, and left it to “honest Pierre,” who never failed to charge him double fare, and of whom he tells a pretty story; how they all enjoyed the village fetes, with whirligigs and flying-horses, whereby the French contrive to make and spend a few sous pleasantly.  “I enjoy all this greatly,” wrote Cooper.  Excursions were made,—­one to Montmorenci, in plain view of Paris; and the author explains that the Montmorenci claim to being “the first Christian baron” is of the Crusade War-Cry date and origin.  His wife and he took all the pretty drives in their cabriolet, but later he took to the saddle for the out-of-field paths, where pleasant salutations were exchanged with kindly-hearted peasants.  Of these rambles Cooper wrote:  “One of my rides is ascending Montmartre by its rear, to the windmills that night and day are whirling their rugged arms over the capital of France.”  Montmartre, he said, gave him a view “like a glimpse into the pages of history.”  He often met royalty dashing to and from Paris.  The king with his carriage-and-eight, attended by a dozen mounted men, made a royal progress truly magnificent.

[Illustration:  COOPER’S TERRACE STUDY, ST. OUEN.]

[Illustration:  OLD MILL AT NEWPORT.]

[Illustration:  THE STRUGGLE.]

Overhanging the river at the garden side was a broad terrace which ended in a pleasant summer-house, and here many pages of the author’s next book—­“The Red Rover”—­were written.  After he left the navy, and while he was living in Angevine, Cooper became part owner in a whaling-ship,—­The Union, of Sag Harbor.  She made trips to different parts of the coast, and several times, for the pleasure of it, Cooper played skipper.  Under his direction