“The well is deep—­far down they lie,
       beneath the cold, blue water! 
    My ear-rings! my ear-rings!”

[Illustration:  PIAZZA SAN MARCO.]

[Illustration:  PALACE OF THE DOGE.]

[Illustration:  TASSO’S WELL.]

This book, one of Cooper’s favorite works, was an artist’s picture of Venice, and was written to martial music in Paris, in 1830, where Cooper arrived on the eve of a revolution, for a stay of three years.  It was published by Lea and Carey, Philadelphia, in 1834, and did not find favor in America, but was much liked in Germany and France.  Prof.  Brander Matthews writes:—­“The scene in which Antonio, the old fisherman, is shrived by the Carmelite monk, in his boat, under the midnight moon upon the lagoon, is one of the finest in the whole range of literature in fiction.”

[Illustration:  THE BRAVO.]

Concerning the carrying off of the art treasures of Venice by the French, Cooper wrote:  “One great picture escaped them; it stood in a dark chapel completely covered with dust and smoke.  Within a few years some artist had the curiosity to examine this then unknown altarpiece.  The picture was taken down, and being thoroughly cleaned, proved to be ‘The Assumption’”—­Titian’s masterpiece, some think.  It is now in the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.  Cooper tells of a monument Canova had “designed for Titian, beautifully chiseled out of spotless marble.”  The author found it “beneath the gloomy arches of the church,” and thought it “singularly dramatic and startling”; but it had been erected to the honor of Canova himself instead of to the painter!

[Illustration:  GLORY OF THE ASSUMPTION.]

[Illustration:  ABSOLUTION OF ANTONIO.]

[Illustration:  ALT MARKET, DRESDEN.]

From Venice Cooper and family went by way of Tyrol to Munich, where he much admired the king of Bavaria’s art collections.  After this brief visit they moved on to Dresden, passing here some pleasant months in a cheerful apartment overlooking the Alt Market.  The quaint and busy show of homely German life, the town, gardens, river, bridge, and fine gallery “worthy of Italy,” were enjoyed. The Water Witch, “wrecked on the Tiber, was now safely launched on the broader waters of the Elbe.”  It was issued by Lea and Carey, Philadelphia, in 1830.

Comparing national traits became at times an unfortunate habit with Cooper.  He was provoked by a Dresden schoolmaster’s surprise that his children were not black; and, again, because he could not convince an English scholar that in Boston “to gouge” did not mean the cruel practice “to squeeze out a man’s eyes with the thumb.”  This English scholar was Sir James Mackintosh.