Satisfied with this answer, the Guards returned to the capital for the purpose of reporting it to their comrades, who were holding the royal palace. But the latter refused to place any confidence in a merely verbal promise, and insisted on a regular discharge for each man before they surrendered the palace. It produced no effect on them that this palace was surrounded by three regiments of infantry and three squadrons of dragoons; on the contrary, they only allowed their own officers to go in and out. At length General von Gähler, fearing lest the scene might have a sanguinary issue, went to Frederiksberg, and brought back a discharge duly signed and sealed for the whole body. But the soldiers, imagining that there was some deception, raised exceptions to the form of the order given them. On hearing this, Struensee said to the Council of the Generalty, "You are soldiers, and must know the means of obtaining obedience; the king insists on the mutineers being removed from the _corps de garde_ before midnight."[26] How greatly the mutineers had public opinion with them, was seen by the fact that the citizens supplied them with provisions, wine, and spirits, of which a large stock had been laid in for the Christmas festivities. These provisions were lavished on the insurgents, whose cause appeared to the lower classes, and even to three-fourths of the higher classes, that of the nation. The sailors, another turbulent band, but who generally quarrelled with the soldiers, offered their help to the mutineers; and it was publicly reported that the gunners had let them know privately that they would receive them into the arsenal, and join them.