He requested a safe-conduct, and the Danish leaders granted him one which stipulated for the king, and for two hundred persons of his suite, friendly entertainment and the honors due to his rank. It was even stated in it that Christian, after the death of Frederick, might possibly be elected king by the states. Gyldenstern on his departure from Copenhagen had been invested with full powers for treating with Christian, and he made use of them. But the convention, nevertheless, was not yet sealed when two Danish officers, Skram and Wilkenstede, arrived in the camp, charged on the part of Frederick with an order by virtue of which Christian was only to be received at discretion, and on unconditional surrender to the will of the king. Did these delegates, finding matters so far advanced, communicate the verbal order which they had received from the king? Supposing that this order was communicated, did Christian, reduced to extremities, choose to make an attempt to influence his uncle? These points do not appear to us to be by any means cleared up.[321] However this may be, Christian did all that he could to procure for himself a kind reception with the prince whom he had undertaken to dethrone. Finding that the wind was changed, he trimmed his sails anew. This man, who was as inconsistent in his actions as in his words, and who had assumed the character of the avenger of insulted Catholicism, wrote to his uncle an evangelical letter in which he confessed his error and declared himself penitent. Was he sincere? Or was he a hypocrite? The latter seems the most probable view. ‘Sire,’ he wrote, ‘I am the prodigal son who returns to his father, but returns a regenerate son. I promise you that I will cherish for you, all the rest of my days, the feelings of a son. Believe me, flesh and blood no longer govern me, but the spirit of grace which God has miraculously bestowed on me, and which fills me with an ardent charity for all mankind, and especially for your Majesty, for the queen, for your sons, for the states of Denmark, and for their allies the Hanse Towns.’ He forgot no one. ‘I hope that your Majesty will rejoice _with all the holy angels_ at the change which is wrought in me, and that our friendship will become all the more solid and more lively for the conspicuous display of our former enmity. I beg you, Sire, to communicate this letter to the senate, in order that it may place confidence in my pious and pacific sentiments.’[322] [Sidenote: Christian A Prisoner Of State.]