The four towns, La Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Charite were, for two years, to remain in the hands of the Huguenots, to serve as places of refuge.
The edict, in which the king promulgated the terms of peace, stated the conditions to be perpetual and irrevocable.
The Huguenots had the more hope that the peace would be preserved, since Montmorency, who was an opponent of the Guises, and had done his best to bring about peace, was high in favour with the king; and indeed, held the chief power in France.
There can be little doubt that, at the time, the king was in earnest.

He ordered the parliament of Paris to annul a declaration they had made, declaring the Cardinal Chatillon, the Admiral's brother, deprived of his bishopric; and as it hesitated, he ordered its president to bring the records to him, and with his own hand tore out the pages upon which the proceedings were entered.
The priests, throughout France, threw every obstacle in the way of the recognition of the edict; and in several places there were popular disturbances, and wholesale massacres.

Paris, as usual, set the example of turbulence and bigotry.
As soon as the peace was concluded, Philip prepared to return for a while to England.

In the three years which had elapsed since he left home, he had greatly changed.

He had been a lad of sixteen when he landed in France.