Yours affectionately,
J. Austen.
Caroline Austen contributed to the Memoir written by her brother many of the personal reminiscences of their aunt. She was the niece to whom Jane in her last illness sent a recommendation to read more and write less during the years of girlhood. Caroline obeyed the injunction; she became a very well-read woman, and never wrote stories for publication. She was, however, an admirable talker: able to invest common things with a point and spirit peculiarly her own. She was also an ideal aunt, both to nieces and nephews, who all owe a great deal to her companionship and devotion.
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 Phœnix 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 Phœnix was lost off Smyrna in 1816, when he returned home. The Phœnix 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:—