During the month before us General Louis Botha and his brother, General Chris. Botha, had a very lively time. They were in the vicinity of Ermelo on the high veldt, in the Eastern Transvaal. They had made so much trouble that Lord Kitchener resolved to make a determined effort to corner and capture them. He collected all his available cavalry and having supplied them with plenty of maxims and guns he started them in six columns to bring in the two Bothas. General French was put in command of the English and was considered the best cavalry officer in the British service, so then there was no doubt but that he would present to Lord Kitchener the two ordinary farmer generals that had been causing so much trouble and alarm. The Bothas had with them about 1,000 men, and French was to corner and capture them with 15,000 men. General French so placed his columns that when they all advanced they would enclose the Bothas within a circle from which it would be impossible to escape. The Bothas discovered French's object and before the columns could advance they attacked and put to flight one column and then moved off in the direction of Piet Retief. This was a surprise to General French, but he did not despair of capturing the farmer generals. He put all his columns in pursuit, and when the proper time came to cage them, the two farmers easily broke through the cordon and returned to the vicinity of Ermelo. [Illustration: GENERAL JAN KEMP] French was discouraged. He made no further attempt to capture the farmers, but was determined to do something before he returned, so he made war on the women and children and spread great distress and suffering among them. Some of these women were raped, others dragged out of their homes at night and made witness all their possessions consumed in flames. Many were driven on foot to concentration camps and kicked and cuffed about as so many beasts. Having made the women suffer as much as possible, he gathered in several thousand cattle and sheep and returned to report what a successful expedition he had completed. At Lake Chrissi, between Ermelo and Carolina, General Botha had the nerve to attack an English camp 2,000 strong. It was a foggy morning, and the noise of the battle stampeded a band of wild horses and they ran into the Krugersdorpers' horses, stampeding them too.