When the Duke arrived in the rebel country he issued a proclamation to the insurgents, commanding them in proud and haughty terms to submit, and promising to be an intercessor for them with the King. This was on October 27. But the very next day he wrote to Henry that he had been forced to declare to the insurgents the royal pardon, in order to ‘sparple’ them, and get them to return to their homes[471]. It is evident that in the meantime a meeting must have taken place between the Duke and the rebels, in which the latter succeeded in convincing their enemy that they, and not he, were in the position to dictate terms. A general truce was arranged, and Lord Darcy was ordered to cease to molest the insurgents[472]. The dread with which Norfolk awaited his first interview with the King is vividly described in the letter in which he announced to the Council his prospective return to the Court. ‘I come,’ wrote the Duke, ‘w_i_t_h_ my hert nere bresten ... inforced to appoynt with the rebell_es_ ... and fearing how his maieste shall take the dispeachyng of our bande[473].’ Norfolk finally arrived at Windsor with two emissaries from the insurgents, who were to report their grievances and receive the King’s answer. Henry was just composing his reply when news came that Aske had attempted to stir up the rebels in the other northern counties. Norfolk wrote to Darcy that the King suspected him of treachery in delivering up Pomfret to Aske, and advised him to do his best to ‘extinct the ill bruit,’ by taking the rebel leader dead or alive[474]. Meantime the King detained Ellerker and Bowes, the two rebel envoys, as hostages, while Darcy attempted to allay any fears of a third outbreak. The King in fact was so seriously alarmed at the danger in the north, that he dreaded that his letter to the Lincolnshire men in early October might not prove sufficient to prevent their joining a new revolt, if such occurred. So seeing their ‘maner, implieng a great repentance,’ and contrasting it with the rebellious attitude of the Yorkshiremen, he sent them on the 14th of November a full pardon[475]. Meantime the report of the probability of a fresh insurrection passed by, and Ellerker and Bowes returned with the King’s answer, with which Henry had taken much trouble, and had endeavoured to disguise the fact that he was really suing for peace, by promising to pardon those who were truly penitent. A conference for discussion of terms was arranged to assemble at Doncaster on the 5th of December, in which Lords Scrope, Latimer, Lumley, Darcy, and others were to represent the rebels, and Norfolk, Suffolk, Shrewsbury, Rutland, and their subordinates the King[476].