g
to give him a hundred thousand francs in payment for the loss of his
daughter's services, and the sacrifice of the young and beautiful singer
was consummated on March 23, 1826. A few weeks later Malibran was a
bankrupt and imprisoned for debt, and his bride discovered how she had
been cheated and outraged by a cunning scoundrel, who had calculated
on saving himself from poverty by dependence on the stage-earnings of
a brilliant wife. The enraged Garcia, always a man of unbridled temper,
was only prevented from transforming one of those scenes of mimic
tragedy with which he was so familiar, into a criminal reality by
assassinating Malibran, through the resolute expostulations of his
friends. Mme. Malibran instantly resigned for the benefit of her
husband's creditors any claims which she might have made on the remnants
of his estate, and her New York admirers had as much occasion to applaud
the rectitude and honor of the woman as they had had the genius of the
artist. Garcia himself, hampered by pecuniary difficulties, set sail
for Mexico with his son and younger daughter, to retrieve his fortunes,
while Maria remained in New York, tied to a wretch whom she despised,
and who looked on her musical talents as the means of supplying him
with the luxuries of life. Mme. Malibran's energy soon found a vent in
English opera, and she made herself as popular on the vernacular as she
had on the Italian stage. But she soon wearied of her hard fate, which
compelled her to toil without ceasing for the support of the man who
had deceived her vilely, and for whom not one spark of love operated to
condone his faults. Five months utterly snapped her patience, and she
determined to return to Paris. She arrived there in September, 1826,
and took up her abode with M. Malibran's sister. Although she had become
isolated from all her old friends, she found in one of the companions of
her days of pupilage, the Countess Merlin, a most affectionate help and
counselor, who spared no effort to make her talents known to the musical
world of Paris, Mme. de Merlin sounded the praises of her friend so
successfully that she soon succeeded in evoking a great degree of public
curiosity, which finally resulted in an engagement.

Malibran's first appearance in the Grand Opera at Paris was for the
benefit of Mme. Galli, in "Semiramide." It was a terrible ordeal, for
she had such great stars as Pasta and Sontag to compete with, and she
was treading a classic