the author than Miss Mitford had.

[341] See p. 376.

[342] On the birth of Anna Lefroy's eldest daughter, Jemima.

[343] See p. 374.

[344] No doubt the Frank Austens.

CHAPTER XX

FAILING HEALTH

1816-1817

During the last year of Jane Austen's life, when her health was
gradually failing, and she was obliged to depend--ever more and more
exclusively--on her immediate family for society, she had at least the
satisfaction of having her two sailor brothers nearer at hand than had
often been the case.

After Frank's return from the Baltic, early in 1814, nothing occurred of
a more serious nature than the Great Naval Review in June--which only
indirectly affected him, as he was not then in command of a ship--to
prevent his attending to his family. He settled down to a domestic life
with wife and children, first of all occupying the Great House at
Chawton, but soon moving to Alton.

Charles, who for ten years had had active but unexciting work outside
the theatre of war, now came more to the front. Commanding the
_Phoenix_ frigate, he operated against Murat, when that eccentric
sovereign took part with Napoleon on the escape of the latter from Elba.
Charles was sent in pursuit of a Neapolitan squadron cruising in the
Adriatic; and subsequently he blockaded Brindisi, and waited for the
garrison to hoist the white flag of the Bourbons. Later on, he was kept
busy with Greek pirates in the Archipelago, until the _Phoenix_ was
lost off Smyrna in 1816, when he returned home. The _Phoenix_ had been
a lucky ship, Admiral Halsted having made his fortune in her; but her
luck was worn out. When she went down, the pilot was on board; no lives
were lost, and no blame fell on the captain. It must have been, however,
a disappointing end to an exciting time; and, as the war was over, it
might be long before he got another ship.

A letter from Charles to Jane, during this command, written from
Palermo, May 6, 1815, furnishes us with one of the few indications that
exist of fame achieved by her during her lifetime:--

Books became the subject of conversation, and I
praised _Waverley_ highly, when a young man
present observed that nothing had come out for
years to be compared with _Pride and Prejudice_,
_Sense and Sensibility_, &c. As I am sure you must
be anxious to know the name of a person of so much
taste, I shall tell you it is Fox, a nephew o