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 of the late Charles James Fox. That you may not be too much elated at this morsel of praise, I shall add that he did not appear to like _Mansfield Park_ so well as the two first, in which, however, I believe he is singular.[345] We may compare this account with the quotation given in the _Memoir_[346] from Sir Henry Holland's _Recollections_:-- I have the picture before me still of Lord Holland lying on his bed, when attacked with gout; his admirable sister, Miss Fox, reading aloud--as she always did on these occasions--some one of Miss Austen's novels, of which he was never wearied.