a son, and his daughter.
Maria's charming voice and personal fascination held the public
spellbound, and raised the delight of opera-goers to a wild pitch of
enthusiasm. While in New York, a French merchant, M. Francois Eugene
Malibran, fell passionately in love with her, and she, being sick of her
father's brutality, and the supposed great fortune of Malibran dazzling
her imagination, married him, though in opposition to her father's
will. A few weeks after the marriage M. Malibran was a bankrupt, and
imprisoned for debt, and his bride discovered that she had been cheated
by a cunning scoundrel, who had calculated on saving himself from
poverty by dependence on the stage earnings of his wife. Garcia and the
rest of his family went to Mexico, where he succeeded in losing his
fortune. Madame Malibran remained in New York with her husband; but at
the end of five months she wearied of her hard fate, and, leaving him,
returned to Paris. Here she soon had the world at her feet, for the
novelty and richness of her style of execution set her apart from all
other singers as a woman of splendid and inventive genius.

Her voice was a mezzo-soprano, naturally full of defects, and, to the
very last, she was obliged to go through her exercises every day to keep
it flexible; but by the tremendously severe discipline to which her
father's teaching subjected her, its range extended so that it finally
reached a compass of three octaves. Her high notes had an indescribable
brilliancy, and her low tones were so soft, sweet, and heart-searching
that they thrilled with every varying phase of her sensibilities.

Mr. Chorley writes: "She may not have been beautiful, but she was better
than beautiful, insomuch as a speaking, Spanish, human countenance is
ten times more fascinating than many a faultless angel face, such as
Guido could paint. There was a health of tint, with but a slight touch
of the yellow rose in her complexion, a great mobility of expression in
her features, an honest, direct brightness of the eye, a refinement in
the form of her head, and the set of it on her shoulders."

Malibran could speak and write in five languages, and sing in any
school. She had the characteristic of being able to fire all her fellow
artists with her genius, and she was a tremendous worker. She was also
very fond of outdoor exercises, being a daring horse-woman and swimmer.

On the death of her husband she married De Beriot, the violinist, to
whom