A certain Captain Matthews, one of a numerous breed in Bath in those days,—­that is, a fashionable scoundrel and a married man,—­made himself obnoxious to Miss Linley by improper addresses.  He annoyed and harassed her, threatening to destroy himself unless she gratified him, and later attempted to sully her reputation by calumnies.  This brought about the culmination of her attachment to Sheridan.  She fled her father’s house and sought the protection of her lover.  Accompanied by a chaperon, they left for France.  After some romantic adventures, they were married in March, 1772, at a little village near Calais; but it was a wedding without the wherewithal to maintain a home, so the bride entered a convent, and, later, the house of an English physician, until literature should be remunerative.  The eloping lady’s father sought the runaways; and, after some explanations, they returned with him to England.  It was shortly after this that Sheridan fought two duels with Matthews, being wounded in the later one to such an extent that his recovery was doubtful.  “Sweet Betsy” claimed the right of a wife to tend her hurt husband, and so revealed the fact of the marriage in France.  The old actor rejected his impulsive son, but Linley’s aversion to the union of his daughter being at last set aside, the pair were re-married in England in April, 1773.

The sweet singer had been admired by another, an elderly suitor of much fortune, whom her father had approved, but to whom she was averse.  This gentleman now became the benefactor of the pair.  He settled a moiety of three thousand pounds on the bride.  Her father retained half of this as compensation for the loss of the services of his daughter.  On the balance, the youthful couple lived.  Sheridan had entered himself a student of the Middle Temple shortly before his marriage.  Though their income was small, he would not allow his wife to accept several proffered professional engagements; he did not wish his helpmeet to become a servant of the public.  This action incited some discussion, and much acrimonious comment, in her family and among their friends.  Johnson upheld his course.  Sheridan, in this instance, understood himself and understood the times.  He knew of the flippant attitude of the young blades of the town toward all public performers; so he sought to save her, who was so sacred to him, from such insult, insincere adulation, and insinuation as she had heretofore suffered from.  They retired to a cottage at East Burnham; and there she, who had received the plaudits of the public as a vocalist, won as noble a name in the character of the ideal wife, one in whom were united all the attributes of loveliness,—­temper, manners, virtues, and surpassing beauty.  What the then public lost, later generations have gained in the picture of that lovable woman, making a golden age of happiness for her greatly-gifted husband in the little cottage at East Burnham.