De Bériot and the beautiful Madame Malibran were now inseparable.
Malibran had for some years been living apart from her husband, an
American merchant, who, with the view of supporting himself by her
talents, had married her when on the brink of financial collapse. In
1835 she succeeded in securing a divorce from him, and then she married
De Bériot.

A few months after their marriage Malibran was thrown from her horse
and sustained internal injuries of such severity that she died after an
illness of nine days, and De Bériot became frantic with grief.

More than a year elapsed before he could at all recover from the effects
of his irreparable loss, and his first appearance in concert, after this
tragic event, was when Pauline Garcia, the sister of Madame Malibran,
made her first début in a concert at Brussels given for the benefit of
the poor.

In 1841 De Bériot married Mlle. Huber, daughter of a magistrate of
Vienna. He returned to Brussels, and became director of the violin
classes at the Conservatoire, after which he ceased giving concerts. He
remained in this position until 1852, when failing eyesight caused him
to retire, and he died at Louvain in 1870.

Before his acquaintance with Madame Malibran, De Bériot was a suitor for
the hand of Mlle. Sontag, and her rejection of him threw him into a
state of despondency, from which it required the brilliancy and wit of
Malibran to rouse him.

De Bériot left a number of compositions which abound in pleasing
melodies, have a certain easy, natural flow, and bring out the