THE GREAT SANCY.	261
	Swiss mercenaries, as was the custom of the times. With regard to Henry III., we read in Varillas (Memoirs), that during the "Holy League," (1576), formed for the threefold purpose of exterminating the Huguenots, shutting up the king in a monastery, and placing the Duke of Guise on the throne, Henry abandoned himself to a life of almost unparalleled debauchery, leaving the cares of State to his mother, Catherine de Medicis. In his twenty-sixth year he became quite bald, and in order to conceal his de­formity, the Due de Sully tells us that he wore " a little turban on his head, his ' toque' as it was called, which was ornamented in front with a very large diamond. It is added that Henry induced M. Sancy ta part with the Indian gem, which had already become famous in the West, ostensibly to empawn it for the purpose of obtaining means to engage a body of Swiss soldiers to crush the Due de Guise. In 1588 the duke was assassinated by the Swiss guard thus formed, who were themselves afterwards shot down by the Parisian rabble. But the jewel does not appear to have ever been pledged by Henry, for it continued to glitter on his toque when he was engaged combing his lap dogs, fondling his monkeys, stringing death's heads, playing with his ivory cup and / ball, or caressing his detestable dwarfs and minions, his cheeks plastered with white and rouge, his lips, eyes, and ears smeared with unguents and cosmetics, while the streets of Paris ran with the blood of his bravest subjects, and his realm was brought to the verge of ruin by the feuds and in­trigues of lawless passion and religious animosity.