At noon a staff officer under a flag of truce summoned the Mayor of the town to surrender, promising to protect private property and pay for such foodstuffs as might be required. Thereupon was enacted a curious drama. While the magnates were putting their heads together and discussing the position, Botha and some five hundred of his mercenaries came on the scene. The commandant bounced that he would not surrender without fighting, and accused Captain Balfour (who had offered to let such Free Staters as should surrender their arms return to their farms) of attempting to suborn his burghers. Botha frantically insisted on the arrest of the staff officer, the staff officer as furiously flourished his flag of truce. The Boers pointed their rifles, the women screamed, the townsfolk gabbled, and general turmoil prevailed. In the end the citizens whose property, so to speak, lay in the palm of the British hand, preferred the Mayor's discretion to Botha's valour, and that warrior, swelling with indignation, and followed by his equally bombastic "braves," shook the dust of the town off their shoes and galloped to the north. At night General Hamilton reached the town, where he was joined by General Colville's Division, which was marching from Waterval towards Heilbron, and was thereupon directed to follow the leading column at a distance of ten miles. [Illustration: THE GREAT ADVANCE: LORD ROBERTS'S COLUMN CROSSING THE SAND RIVER DRIFT Facsimile of a Sketch by Melton Prior, War Artist] The advance of the army is arranged, as some one described, not as a continuous movement but as a caterpillar-like form of progress, the first part of the move being a species of advance, the second a drawing up of the tail end of the creature. Thus the vast machine is carried from point to point, the halting-places being usually at positions of strategic consequence. The Boers had run away from their first positions at Brandfort and on the Vet; the second ones on the Zand, the Valsch, and the Rhenoster were now to be purged of the Republicans. It was necessary before going forward to make a three days' halt, during which the tail end of the monster--the railway--was put in working order, and supplies collected and brought up. The enemy's position on the Zand was reconnoitred, and on the 9th the advance was resumed, General Ian Hamilton hurrying to assist in the operations at the Zand River, the Highland Brigade being left in possession of Winburg. TOWARDS THE ZAND RIVER TO KROONSTADT