He kept up his huge output of fiction, as well as producing a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. By 1831 his health was failing. Still, he did a grand tour of Europe, where he was welcomed wherever he went. He returned to Scotland and, in September 1832, died at Abbotsford, near Melrose in the Roxburghshire. Though he died owing money, his novels continued to sell well. The debts of his estate were eventually discharged.