Still, it was unpleasant to receive the report that while the main army had been advancing, an immense force of Boers, through a series of unfortunate mistakes, had succeeded in capturing in the vicinity of Vredefort Road, a convoy and an escort of a company and a half of Highlanders on its way to Heilbron. The outline of the unhappy affair was painful in the extreme. As the mysterious circumstances attending the movements of the convoy have not yet been fully sifted, it would be unfair to accept the numerous criticisms offered on the subject, and details regarding the capture are so lost in the "fog of war," that it is difficult to give an account of the series of muddles that brought about disaster. It appeared that though the enemy were lurking everywhere the convoy was travelling from Winburg under escort of only a company and a half "odd" men of the Brigade with orders to pick it up at Kroonstad, which place was subsequently changed to Heilbron. At Vredefort the party were to leave the rail and go by road; but shortly it received orders to await an escort that was being sent from Heilbron. General Hector MacDonald wired that it should not proceed further till escorted by a strong force of mounted troops, infantry, and artillery, as he himself, during his five days' march, had been repeatedly in collision with the foe. The officer in command laagered up. Next day an orderly reconnoitred and failed to detect the presence of the enemy. Suspicion had been aroused, however, by the disappearance of a Colonial conductor, who, it seems, used the occasion to report to De Wet, who promptly seized the time and the opportunity. He sent in with a flag of truce a terse message, "I have 1200 men and five guns. Surrender at once." An hour earlier Major Haig with 600 men, marching from Vredefort Road, had got to within two miles of the convoy, but hearing that the railhead was threatened had turned back. The convoy was therefore at De Wet's mercy, and he knew it. He refused to give any terms, so the small party capitulated! General Hector MacDonald, in defence of his Highlanders, who were evidently not at fault, gave a concise account of the circumstances attending the misadventure--an account more trustworthy than those of outsiders--