Cease boding doubt, cease anxious fear;
Dry be that tear."

He proves his devotion by his action when appealed to by his
divinity.

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