be very easily
combined with a stay at Dawlish), and that they resided there some
weeks.

This was the year of the short cessation of hostilities brought about by
the Peace of Amiens. During its continuance, we are told that the Henry
Austens went to France in the vain hope of recovering some of her first
husband's property, and narrowly escaped being included amongst the
_detenus_. 'Orders had been given by Bonaparte's Government to detain
all English travellers; but at the post-houses Mrs. Henry Austen gave
the necessary orders herself, and her French was so perfect that she
passed everywhere for a native, and her husband escaped under this
protection.'[132]

Our only evidence of Jane's having been absent from Bath in 1803 is that
Sir Egerton Brydges,[133] in speaking of her, says: 'The last time I
think that I saw her was at Ramsgate in 1803.'

On Francis Austen's promotion (already mentioned), Admiral Gambier seems
rather to have gone out of his way to choose him as his flag-captain on
the _Neptune_; but on the Peace of Amiens, he, like many others, went on
half-pay. His first employment when war broke out again, in 1803, was
the raising from among the Kent fishermen of a corps of 'sea fencibles,'
to protect the coast from invasion. His head-quarters were at Ramsgate,
and it was quite likely that Jane would visit him there, especially if
she could combine this visit with one to Godmersham. We shall see later
that the 'sea fencibles' did not take up the whole of Frank's time.

She must now have begun to turn her mind again to her neglected MSS.,
and especially to _Northanger Abbey_. This, no doubt, underwent a
thorough revision (_Belinda_, mentioned in the famous dissertation
on novels, was not published till 1801); and there is evidence[134]
that she sold the MS., under the title of _Susan_, in the spring of
1803: not, indeed, to a Bath publisher--as has been often stated--but
to Messrs. Crosby & Son of London, for ten pounds, stipulating for
an early publication. Distrustful of appearing under her own name
in the transaction, Jane seems to have employed a certain Mr.
Seymour--probably her brother Henry's man of business--a fact which
suggests that the sale was effected while Jane was staying in London
with Henry. For reasons best known to himself, Mr. Crosby did not
proceed with the publication.

Besides _Northanger Abbey_, Jane seems to have written at this time the
beginning of a tale which was published i