Gwynne, Eleanor,
Better known as Nell Gwynn, (her real name was Margaret Symcott,) rose from an orange-girl of the meanest description, to be the mistress of Charles the Second. She first gained her bread by singing from tavern to tavern, and gradually rose to be a popular actress at the Theatre Royal. She is said to have been exceedingly pretty, but below the ordinary height. In her elevation she shewed great gratitude to Dryden, who had befriended her in her poverty. She was also faithful to her royal lover, and after his death retired flora the world, and passed the remainder of her life in seclusion. She died in 1691, and was pompously interred in the parish church of St. Martin's in the Fields; Dr. Tennison, then vicar, afterwards Bishop of Canterbury, preaching her funeral sermon. This sermon, it was reported, was shortly afterwards brought forward by Lord Jersey to impede the Rev. Doctor's preferment; but Queen Mary, having heard the objection, answered gravely, "What then? I have heard as much; this is a sign that that poor unfortunate woman died penitent; for, if I can read a man's heart through his looks, had she not made a pious and Christian end, the doctor could never have been induced to speak well of her." This repentance is not recorded of any other mistress of the profligate king. "Poor Nelly" was the victim of circumstances, not the votary of vice; and of the inmates of that wicked and corrupt court, she only has won pity and forgiveness from posterity. She deserves this, for she was pitiful to others. In the time of her prosperity she never forgot to relieve distress; and at her death she left a fund for annual distribution at Christmas among the poor debtors, which is to this day distributed in the prisons of London. From Nell Gwynne descended the Dukes of St. Albans.
HABERT, SUSAN DE,
Wife of Charles Jardin, an officer of the household of Henry the Third of France, who became a widow in 1585, at the age of twenty-four, when she devoted herself to literature, especially philosophy, divinity, and the languages. She was a pious as well as learned woman. She died in 1633.
HACHETTE, JEANNE,
Or Jeanne Foucquet, a heroine of Beauvais, in Picardy, France, who successfully headed a body of women in an assault upon the Burgundians, who besieged her native place in 1470. When the Burgundians ascended their ladders to plant their standards on the walls, Jeanne, with a battle-axe, drove some of them back, and seized their flag, which she deposited in a church, after the battle. Louis the Eleventh of France recompensed her for her bravery; she afterwards married Collin Pillon, and she and her descendants were exempted from taxation. In commemoration of her intrepid conduct, there is an annual procession at Beauvais, on the 10th. of July, in which the women march at the head of the men.
