Captain Mathews, a married man and intimate with Miss Linley's family,
presuming upon the innocent familiarity which her youth and his own
station permitted between them, had for some time not only rendered her
remarkable by his indiscreet attentions in public, but had even
persecuted her in private with those unlawful addresses and proposals,
which a timid female will sometimes rather endure, than encounter that
share of the shame, which may be reflected upon herself by their
disclosure. To the threat of self-destruction, often tried with effect
in these cases, he is said to have added the still more unmanly menace
of ruining, at least, her reputation, if he could not undermine her
virtue. Terrified by his perseverance, and dreading the consequences of
her father's temper, if this violation of his confidence and hospitality
were exposed to him, she at length confided her distresses to Richard
Sheridan; who, having consulted with his sister, and, for the first
time, disclosed to her the state of his heart with respect to Miss
Linley, lost no time in expostulating with Mathews, upon the cruelty,
libertinism, and fruitlessness of his pursuit. Such a remonstrance,
however, was but little calculated to conciliate the forbearance of this
professed man of gallantry, who, it appears by the following allusion to
him under the name of Lothario, in a poem written by Sheridan at the
time, still counted upon the possibility of gaining his object, or, at
least, blighting the fruit which he could not reach:--

Nor spare the flirting _Cassoc'd rogue_,
Nor ancient Cullin's polish'd brogue;
Nor gay _Lothario's_ nobler name,
That _Nimrod_ to all female fame.

In consequence of this persecution, and an increasing dislike to her
profession, which made her shrink more and more from the gaze of the