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Great Singers, First Series - Faustina Bordoni To Henrietta Sontag by George T. (George Titus) Ferris
page 81 of 165 (49%)
sanctioned the marriage which he suspected opposition would only delay,
probably fully aware that the lady would soon repent her infatuation.
Jean Mara did all in his power to effect this result, for the honeymoon
had hardly ended before he began to beat his bride at small provocation
with all the energy of a sturdy arm. Poor Mme. Mara had a hard life of
it thenceforward, but she never ceased to love Mara to the last;
and many years afterward, when a friend was severely reprobating his
brutality, she said, with a sigh of loving regret, "Ah! but you must
confess he was the handsomest man you ever saw."

The King frequently interposed to punish Mara for his harshness. On one
occasion he gave him a public caning and on another he sent him to a
field regiment, noted for the rigid severity of its discipline, to be
enrolled as a drummer for three months, accompanying the order with the
_mot_, "His propensity for beating shall have the fullest exercise
on the drum." A ludicrous sentence of the royal despot was that which
consigned him to the tender mercies of the body-guard, with strict
orders for his correction. No particular mode of punishment was
prescribed, so each soldier inflicted such chastisement as he considered
most fitting. They began by rigging him out in an old uniform and a
large pair of whiskers, loading him with the heaviest firelock they
could find, and forced him to go through the manual exercise for two
hours, accompanying their drill with the usual discipline of the cane.
They then made him dance and sing for two hours longer, and ended this
persecution by compelling the surgeon to take from him a large quantity
of blood. In a miserable condition they restored him to his disconsolate
wife, who had been essaying all her arts to persuade the officer of the
guard to mitigate the poor wretch's punishment.

The King's method of carrying on the opera was characteristic.
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