Only on 2 September Gustav IV Adolf agreed that Alexandra would keep her Eastern Orthodox faith. Four days later, on 6 September, the Swedish embassy formally requested the hand of the Grand Duchess. The groom and the bride's father visited some military maneuvers, and poet Gavrila Derzhavin wrote a ""Concert for the engagement of the King of Sweden with Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna"". The official engagement was scheduled to take place on 11 September in the Throne Room of the Winter Palace. However, when Counts Zubov and Morkov were to sign the marriage contract in the morning of that day, they found that there was no article about the freedom of religion of the Grand Duchess, which was erased by order of the king. Despite the pleas of the Russian envoys, the King was firm that he would never give his people an Orthodox queen, and locked himself in his room. The Empress, her court and Alexandra, who was dressed as a bride, waited for him for more than four hours. Following the announcement of the final rejection of the king, the Empress had a small attack of apoplexy, and a grief-stricken Alexandra, in tears, locked herself in her room; the Swedish embassy declared that the engagement was canceled due to illness of the King. On 12 September Gustav IV Adolf was present at the ball on the occasion of the birthday of Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna (born Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld), wife of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, but he was given a cold reception. Alexandra wasn't present at the ball, and the Empress had spent a little more than 15 minutes there, citing illness. Although the engagement didn't take place, talks about a marriage continued for a while. On 22 September 1796 the Swedish King had left Russia, with the Empress warned his son: "They're just your sons and their wives, but your four daughters should all be ill with colds."