The victory of Arnay-le-Duc, following closely as it did on a series of Huguenot successes in the West of France, had important consequences. The miserable condition of the country, the exhausted finances, the enmity between the Montmorency and Lorraine factions of the Catholic party, the jealousy between Charles IX. and Anjou, and the fear of active intervention by England, had all combined to persuade Catherine that it was impossible to carry on the war much longer; and she now decided that peace must be made with as little delay as possible. Pius V. and Philip II. made every effort to dissuade her, the former warning her that “there could be no communion between Satan and the sons of light;” but their remonstrances were unheeded, and on 8 August, the Peace of Saint-Germain put an end to the war, and accorded the Protestants infinitely greater concessions than any which they had yet obtained.[90] The two years which followed “_la paix boiteuse et malassise_,”[91] as the Peace of Saint-Germain was wittily called, were passed by Condé chiefly at La Rochelle, which had now become the headquarters of the Huguenots, and was one of the four towns which they were permitted to hold as security for the strict observance of the edict. The religious earnestness and gravity so far beyond his years which the young prince showed had gained him the entire confidence of Coligny, who had decided to delegate to him the direction of the Protestants of the West; and it was Condé who, in the Admiral’s absence, executed his orders in Poitou and Saintonge and kept him informed of all that was passing there. During the greater part of the year 1571, Jeanne d’Albret and Henri of Navarre were also at La Rochelle. If Condé had little affection for his cousin, to his aunt he was warmly attached, while she, on her side, seems to have looked upon him almost as a second son. As for his step-mother, the dowager-princess, his feelings towards her were the reverse of cordial. Not only had she never shown him any sympathy or affection, but, having recently abandoned the Reformed faith herself, she had surrendered her sons and stepsons to their uncle, the Cardinal de Bourbon, to be brought up in the Catholic religion. Her conduct, which was denounced by the Huguenots as an act of infamous treachery to her dead husband, had naturally occasioned Condé the most intense indignation, but, since it had occurred during the war, he had, of course, been powerless to interfere.