July ended with a triumphant flourish of trumpets in honour of the united labours of, first, General Sir Leslie Rundle, who may claim the east of the Orange Colony as his military perquisite, and finally General Sir Archibald Hunter. Prinsloo's surrender was followed by that of 1200 more Free Staters, and the Commandants Roux and Fonternel. To General Bruce Hamilton came Commandants Deploy, Potgieter, and Joubert, and Lieutenant Alderson, a Danish officer of Staats Artillery, and with them 1200 rifles, 650 ponies, and an Armstrong gun. The Free State army was therefore only represented by De Wet and his followers--some 1500--who were hovering in the neighbourhood of the Vaal, and Olivier, who, having refused to consider himself bound by Prinsloo's actions, had taken up a position in the direction of Harrismith, where he was being tracked by General Rundle. AFFAIRS IN AND AROUND PRETORIA--THE CAPTURE OF MIDDELBURG Late in June, at the time of the armistice before-mentioned, there seemed to have been some hesitation on the part of Botha and Kruger whether they should unconditionally surrender, but they were incapable of decisive action while Steyn, who now had nothing to lose and everything to gain, kept the field. The position was best described by Mr. Spenser Wilkinson when he likened Kruger and Steyn to Hannibal and Hasdrubal: "the strongest proof that his cause was lost that could be given to Hannibal was Hasdrubal's head sent into his camp." Another important consideration influenced the President in his hesitation; he bargained, or wished to bargain, that he might remain in the country, a condition which of course could not be entertained. Both Mrs. Kruger and Mrs. Botha exerted themselves to bring about the termination of the useless struggle. One went to her husband's camp in hope to influence him, while the other wrote imploring her better half to come to terms. But their efforts were of no avail. According to some accounts, the President was in the hands of his generals, who, declaring he had played his cards and played them badly, arrogated to themselves the right to judge when hostilities should cease. He was, moreover, in bad odour even with his own burghers, and many of them were openly denouncing him for his conduct in feathering his own nest, and leaving his compatriots alone to face ruin and extricate themselves from the hurly-burly into which he had inveigled them. His foreign mercenaries, too, were furious. They had been calculating on magnificent rewards for their championship of the Boer cause, and now found it hard to digest the philosophic maxim, "Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed!"