Friends of Jean Audubon at Nantes had made repeated demands of the Ministry of Marine that he be given a rank more in accord with his patriotism and efficient service to the State, and on October 11, 1797, he was commissioned lieutenant-commander (_lieutenant de vaisseau_),[71] one grade below that of captain. He held this rank for three years, during which he was engaged in vigilance service at Les Sables d'Olonne and in military duty at Rochefort, or until he was retired from the navy for disability, January 1, 1801 (_le 11 nivose, an 9_), at the age of fifty-seven.[72] He had served the State for over eight years, and his total period of active duty on sea and land when employed in the merchant marine and navy of France, as estimated from port to port, amounted to nineteen years, nine months and twelve days, while it had extended with interruptions over more than forty years.[73] After this long period of service, when, suffering from a pulmonary affection, he applied to his Government for a pension, he received the paltry annuity of 600 francs or $120. [Illustration: CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE OF LIEUTENANT JEAN AUDUBON, FEBRUARY 26, 1801. From a photograph of the original in the Lavigne MSS.] With this modest pension and a property yielding an income not above $2,000 a year[74], Lieutenant Audubon retired to his quiet villa of "La Gerbetière," at Couëron, where he could indulge his taste for country life and for raising his favorite fruits and flowers; he is said to have kept some live stock, but could have been a farmer only on a modest scale. Meanwhile he continued to maintain a house, or at least rooms, at Nantes, whither he went periodically to conduct his correspondence and business affairs. The following letter of attorney, issued by Lieutenant Audubon a year after he had retired from the navy, shows that he still had interests in Santo Domingo, and was endeavoring to collect rents, long overdue, from houses and stores that belonged either to himself or to his clients. Whether through the dishonesty of agents or from what other cause, this property which the elder Audubon held in his own right seems gradually to have melted away: The 19th pluviose, in the eleventh year of the Republic, one and indivisible [January 7, 1802], before the public notaries of the department of Loire inférieure, who reside in Nantes and Doulon, the undersigned have seen present the citizen Jean Audubon, lieutenant of frigate, retired, and proprietor at Santo Domingo, aged 59 years, infirm and unable in consequence of his infirmities to go himself to attend to his business affairs in Santo Domingo, living in Rubens Street, in the Mocquard house,[75] No. 39, in the city and commune of Nantes, department of Loire inférieure: