‘Then the king rose very early in the morning, and went hurriedly to the den of lions, and when he came near to the den, to Daniel, he cried with a griefstricken voice. The king spoke and said to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God whom you continually serve, able to deliver you from the lions?”.
It is made clear here that the king was genuinely concerned for Daniel. In many ways a king's life is a lonely life. He can trust few. He has close relations with few. So that when he finds someone whom he likes and trusts a strong bond can be built up. And that would seem to be the case here.
It would seem that the sentence required that the condemned man spent the night in the den of lions. The lions would have been kept hungry, and usually no more than a night was required. So at the very first moment that he reasonably could, probably as dawn was beginning to break, he went himself as fast as he could to the lion's den. There was still hope in his heart that a miracle might have happened. And as he drew near and spotted the hole that looked down on the cave he could not restrain himself, and in a griefstricken voice cried out. Daniel had told him that he served the living God, not a god of gold or silver or stone. Well, was it true?
So as he scrambled towards the hole that would tell him the worst, he cried out, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has He done it? You have served Him faithfully. Has he delivered you?' Both doubt and fear and hope were all being expressed. He was beside himself. And then came the sound that he had not dared to hope for.