At this time the Duke of Cambridge's Yeomanry were to have met Sir H. Colvile, but owing to their failing by an hour or so to join him on his march up from Lindley they were surrounded, and on the 31st were captured by the enemy. The tale of the disaster is told elsewhere. On the 29th, the Division began to move gradually on in caterpillar fashion, drawing up a back segment to propel the forward one, inch by inch, or mile by mile. Mr. Blundell's description in the _Morning Post_ of the advance shows how risky and ingenuous a proceeding the movements of baggage in face of the enemy may be. "The route lay over a series of ridges and spruits and along a parallel line of hill on which the Boer forces had taken up their position. The baggage, &c., was first concentrated and taken over the spruit, with the Seaforths as right rear flank guard and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as rear guard. As the baggage and transport advanced the Highland Light Infantry advanced, and the battalions guarding flank and rear retired from their position and followed the baggage across the drift, while small bodies of the enemy hovered round the retiring rear at a respectful distance and unable to do any serious damage." Finally at 7 P.M. on the 29th, exactly to time ordered by the chief, the General and his tired warriors marched into Heilbron, having covered within eight days a distance of 126 miles, fighting "a swarm of hornets" at intervals the whole way, and losing in the advance fifty-four wounded and nine killed--a loss in comparison with the work done by no means heavy. Mr. Blundell's description of the class of work and its reward so happily hits off the nature of the movement, that the temptation to quote him is irresistible. "To appreciate the humours of the military situation in these regions, one would have to turn to the experiences of one's schoolboy days with wasps' nests, when, after the capture of the main position, the survivors take to guerilla warfare in the grass, crawling up your trousers and dropping on your neck from unexpected quarters, and inflicting damage to your temper and prestige out of all proportion to the losses incurred or the advantage gained." FROM BOSHOP TO KROONSTAD Christiana, as we know, was occupied on the 16th of May by one of General Hunter's brigades, while Lord Methuen moved his Division from Boshop to Hoopstad, thus bringing his troops into the zone of the great operations, and pursuing his march eastwards along the south bank of the Vaal. (Hunter's Brigade afterwards removed to cover the repair of the line along the Bechuanaland Railway towards Vryburg, and there for the present we must leave them.) [Illustration: HIGHLAND BRIGADE AT THE END OF A LONG FORCED MARCH. (Photo by a British Officer.)]