Matters were quiet in the Free State, so we pass on to Cape Colony. On September 15th, the day of banishment, General Kritsinger attacked and put to flight one column, while General Smuts smashed another and took two extra guns with him. This day was celebrated all over Cape Colony by the commandants, but I regret to say that two of the very best of them were very unfortunate. Commandant Lotter and over a hundred men were surrounded and captured after a most desperate fight. Because he made such a brave showing and because he wrought so much havoc with English columns, he was promptly hanged. Young Scheepers, who was so ill with fever that he could not ride, was also captured, tied in a chair and shot, as well as his two lieutenants, Wolvarts and Schoeman. These brave men had fought many successful battles and laid low many English officers and men, therefore, they must die. After a while I will have something more to say about these good men, young Louw and other martyrs. In the Western Transvaal, General de la Rey also celebrated the 15th of September by taking 200 men and attacking Colonel Kekewich and 1200 at Selons River. Colonel Kekewich lost all his horses, his wagons, had a narrow escape, and he with his men fled as fast as their legs could take them, while General de la Rey continued to harass them. Had General de la Rey had a few more men, he would have taken the whole column, but he had to content himself with all the horses. All this went to show Lord Kitchener how much the Boers thought of his threats and proclamation. If there were 10,000 Boers in the field, and no more than 50,000 English, and the Boers should issue such a proclamation, why, the English would fairly break their necks, such would be their haste to lay down their guns. But the Boers are soldiers who love liberty and their Country, and therefore are not men to run and lay down their guns because some high butcher at the head of 300,000 men threatens to banish them forever from their country if they do not. CHAPTER XXII. ARTILLERY BOYS SURPRISED--A GREAT RACE--MURDER OF TWO YOUNG BOERS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THEY WERE MEMBERS OF THE IRISH BRIGADE--THE ONLY NAVAL BATTLE OF THE WAR. In October, Major Wolmorans, Major Pretorius, myself, Lieutenant Johannes Malan, sixty-three artillery boys and one Irish boy, Mike Ryan, started for the Pietersburg railway line to take in a train. To get there we had to pass through the blockhouses on the Pretoria-Delagoa railway line. We camped about six miles from this line, and when it was dark we saddled up and went on our way. The blockhouses were so numerous that we would have to pass close by them, but as they were not dangerous institutions, we thought little about them. The armored trains by Balmoral Station were our great danger, for they were equipped with men, cannon, maxims, and large search-lights.